#245 NOVEMBER 2013

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Quake weatherEDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief Logan Decker

Executive Editor Evan Lahti

Senior Associate Editor Tyler Wilde

Managing Editor Cory Banks

Interns T.J. Hafer, Jake Godin, Ben Kim

Edit Squirrel Tabasco

Contributors Graham Smith, Rich McCormick, Tony Ellis,

Tom Francis, Chris Thursten, Tom Senior

ART

Art Editor John Strike

Contributors Julian Dace, Andy McGregor, David Lyttleton

BUSINESS

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Advertising Coordinator

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The air is very warm at night, almost stifling, and strangely there’s no cooling wind drifting in from the from the coast. Most people are outdoors, drinking beer and stargazing at the parks. But folks who’ve lived in San Francisco for a long time can’t help but feel a little bit uneasy because of a phenomenon that we call “earthquake weather.”

That’s what the climate was like on the day of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. So when the temperature drops and the wind dies down, it’s hard to shake the feeling that something’s afoot.

I was building my first gaming PC (based on a majestic 386 CPU) around the time of the quake. That was back when the four stages of PC gaming were 1. IRQs, 2. DMAs, 3. COM ports, and 4. Crying. But in a couple of years, the launch of Windows 3.1 would

begin a process that gradually and permanently changed the experience of PC gaming.

Earthquakes are bad. But change is good. And my spidey-sense is tingling. PC gaming is about to evolve again. The Oculus Rift. The Steam Box. The rise of Linux and Android as gaming platforms. The diminishing role of publishers, and the increasing collaboration between developers and gamers.

It might be none of these things. Or it might be all of them. But a change is coming. A big one. And once again, PC gamers are going to be leading the way.

BRINGING YOU THE SCOOPS THIS MONTH...

Evan Lahti@elahtiQuestioned the validity of Cory’s driver’s license and citizenship during his Papers, Please review.

Tyler Wilde@tyler_wildeSpent an hour on public transit to blow up three of his friends in Spelunky’s local-only deathmatch.

Cory Banks@demiurgeAlmost changed careers to become a European truck driver. Was denied entry to Europe by Evan.

Tom Senior@PCGLudoBecame King of Internet. Celebrated by writing about XCOM: Enemy Within for the magazine.

Future US, Inc. is part of Future plc Future

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LOGAN DECKEREDITOR-IN-CHIEFlogan@pcgamer.com@logandecker

NOVEMBER 2013 7

18 tOtAL wAR: ROME iiFrom the bloodied soil to the eagle’s eye,

we zoom through the Italian countryside to

command ancient war like you’ve never seen it

56 dOtA 2Our verdict on Steam’s most popular

game—find out why playing Dota 2 is a little like

being a sailor

30 MAGiCKA: wiZARd wARSMix up your magic, rule the elements,

and accidentally electrocute friends in Wizard

Wars’ scrappy PvP arenas

NOveMber 2013 9

10 » SEND Your letters, our responses

12 » NEWS Diving into BioShock infinite’s upcoming story DLC, Burial At Sea

14 » THE SPY What Knights of the Old Republic 3

could have been

MONITOR

35 XCOM: Enemy within Firaxis’ next puts you in command of genetically modified soldiers in the war for humanity’s survival

40 the Sims 4 Watch your Sims become more lifelike through a new emotion system

44 EverQuest NextSOe wants to reinvent MMOs by letting players destroy the world

48 Princeton Review Want an education in games? Start your journey here

FEATURES

56 dota 2

64 teleglitch: die More Edition

66 Halo: Spartan Assault

68 dark

70 Saints Row iV

74 teacher Story

74 Bit.tRiP FAtE

76 divinity: dragon Commander

78 Papers, Please

REVIEWS

#245 NOVEMBER 2013

18 total war: Rome ii

22 Rise of Venice

26 Rain world

28 infinite Crisis

30 Magicka: wizard wars

PREVIEWS

91 » Buyer’s Advice How to choose the right gaming laptop

92 » GROUP TEST Seven laptops put through their paces 96 » THE RIG Our recommended PC, updated monthly

The Hard Stuff

80 » NOW PLAYING Cory’s on the road again in Euro truck Simulator 2, Tyler shares Spelunky screens

84 » TOP 10 DOWNLOADS explore a Skyrim resume mod, experience Sonic After the Sequel, and blow Cyberdemons to bits in Brutal doom

88 » REINSTALL The Many scares in System Shock 2

EXTRA LIFE

91 LAPtOPSMake the right call on your next portable

frame cruncher with our buyer’s guide and seven

laptop deep review roundup

Last year’s best strategy game gets even better—rocket-powered robot fist style

35

xcom enemy within

10 NOVEMBER 2013

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THE HOT MAIL

Top 100 feedbackI applaud many of your non-obvious choices, but where was Diablo 2, the best hack & slash RPG ever? You put Diablo 3 on the list, and while it was a great game, its loot system paled in comparison to Diablo 2. Rob

Everyone has their own Top 100, and how Frankenstein feels about Steam

Ah, backlash for the Top 100. It’s the best part of creating a definitive list: no one will agree with you. And that’s great, because the discussion is the point. You’re absolutely right that Diablo 2 is a fantastic game. Unfortunately, in our view, it’s just not fantastic enough to meet our criteria of the best PC games you can play right now. Diablo 3 improves the visuals and connectivity available, while making many interesting changes to the skill trees. Our Top 100 list was designed to reflect the best games you can play right now; we stand by it. PCG

I was more than a little surprised to see Skyrim as No. 1. Skyrim is all breadth and nearly no genuine depth. Most of the game is extremely

shallow and tries far too hard to be too many things that it does very few things well. Skyrim builds the world as its best character, but for me that’s not enough. Bioware games have characters with engaging and meaningful dialog. When you make a dialog choice you get rewarded with an interesting and well thought out response (usually). Skyrim is devoid of nearly any genuine and good dialog, paired with mostly horrid voice acting (not counting the fact that you hear the same X male voice and Y female voice repeated all over the place).Matthew Langley

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. In our view, Skyrim gives players a huge world to explore, with all the tools necessary to expand on that world and leave your mark. Bioware’s games are brilliant, too, but they focus on telling on specific story instead of the thousands of stories Skyrim players have been a part of. That’s why it’s our No. 1 game. PCG

Just reading the new issue... I think you guys should do top 25 lists EVERY month... just to spite all those whiny ****s who write in to tell you why their opinion on a game’s value is more important than whatever you picked. And a good day to you sirs. Cloon

If we followed that logic, eventually we’d have a “Top 25 favorite textures” story. The

■ I’ve got to hand it to you guys—you’re always diplomatic. The (PC) gaming world is full of passion and, not infrequently, somewhat lacking in maturity. But, time and again you publish letters and air criticisms from upset, distraught and confused gamers in a way that allows you to deal substance on the issues and keep the focus on how great our PC platform is. That’s diplomatic. That’s good. I think the gaming community owes you guys a big THANK YOU.Chris AjemianNo need to thank us. We’re just doing our job, representing the PC gaming community across the world. All in a day’s work.

■ Could you explain in your opinion why the gaming industry releases a PC version up to six months after the console versions come out? I’ve been told that the reason is illegal copying. Thank you.John M. DiIorioStaving off piracy might be a motive, but there are a variety of complex reasons for PC delays which will vary from company to company—most often, port optimization is to blame. The console versions have much stricter deadlines—they have to be slapped on discs and shipped to retail stores—so PC development often comes after. But it’s getting better. Many newer games have launched on both consoles and PCs at the same time, and that trend looks to continue.

Best of the bestAt the end of Logan’s Editor’s Note (September 2013), he

says: “Because PC gamers were the first gamers, and we’re still the best gamers, with the richest history and brightest future.” As a predominately console gamer I take umbrage at that statement and hope that Logan isn’t one of those fellows that talks about the “PC gamer master race.”

First gamers? Most people had played a game on an Atari 2600 before they ever played one on a computer. As for “best,” if you mean “best at being elitist jerks more concerned with playing benchmarks for e-peen bragging points than playing actual games,” then yes, perhaps.

I also think “best” is a dumb thing to say considering that we’re mostly playing the same games and have been for many years.Ron Rogers, Jr.

I consider “PC gaming” to include any

and all open platforms; that is,

anybody with access to a computer

can develop, publish, and play games

on it without being forced to comply

with standards set by a licensor. And

the reason I say “best gamers” isn’t

because we’re smarter, more skilled,

or prettier than other gamers, but

because we’re free to experiment with

and enjoy games any way we like.

That’s why the coolest trends in

gaming—multiplayer, MMOs,

modding, Oculus Rift—all got their

start on the PC, and always will.

Consoles are great gaming machines,

but they restrict this kind of creativity.

Finally, I don’t think I’ve ever been

that guy who goes on about the “PC

gaming master race,” but after a

couple beers I’m likely to say anything.

If so, just tuck me into bed and let me

sleep it off.

Logan

Just because it came before doesn’t mean it’s the best around.

Gilbert Gottfried as The Dragon.

NOVEMBER 2013 11

Iain GrantCurrently playing: Battlefield 1942

SPK UR MNDYOU’RE PLAYING

debate would sunder the team into distinct factions. The good news is that we’ll soon be giving you a chance to vote in the Reader’s Top 100. Keep an eye on pcgamer.com for that. PCG

Just semanticsI couldn’t help but notice Mr. Matthew Winfrey’s rant regarding that Call of Duty, Duke Nukem, and Unreal should have made the top 25 shooters list. If I’m not mistaken Unreal was not the first FPS to allow free look. If my memory serves me right, I believe that the original Quake offered free look with the mouse by opening the

I’m crouched behind

some sandbags we

hastily set up, laying

down suppressive fire with my

machinegun, trying to stem the tide

of Nazi troopers storming the bridge

my squad and I defend.

An enemy fighter roars through

the skies. I hurl myself to the ground

amid a hail of bullets. The fighter

drops a bomb, the low whistle

heralding death. The bomb

smashes into the ground and

detonates with an ear-splitting

blast, sending a shower of earth and

shrapnel all around us. Someone

hits the ground with a sickening

crunch. Somehow I survived... I begin

firing again, that’s when I notice the

Tiger tanks. I look for a grenade and

find I have none; my ammo is low

and things look hopeless.

I turn around. Reinforcements!

Some Sherman tanks and a host of

infantry. I turn back to the enemy

and let loose with everything I have

to buy my comrades some time.

Moments later I realise my

comrades aren’t advancing... they’re

standing still as German snipers pick

them off! There are times when I

HATE Battlefield 1942!

Lucky for me, I can use my mouse to turn away as you murder me.

The best defense is standing still duringa good offense. Isn’t that right?

and looking up and down with the Page Up and Page Down keys. We’ve never had it so good. PCG

All by myselfI don’t play multiplayer. I constantly look at Steam to see what might be new in the single-player variety. I tried FPS games but I am not quick enough to respond well enough to survive. I did enjoy Call of Duty 2 and played it a lot before and I recently tried it again but was disappointed in that I just cannot react quickly enough.

So what is the future of FPS single-player games? Will there be others or will the genre become collector item pieces?Nobert Meyer

There are more single-player shooters than you think: check out the BioShock series, S.T.A.LK.E.R., Metro: LL, FarCry 3 and its Blood Dragon spinoff. They’re all deep shooters, as is Crysis 3. Finally, even though Borderlands 2 has a single-player mode, its cooperative play is a great way to make new friends and influence people. Any of these should be next on your list. PCG

■ I am compelled to write you, my friends at PC Gamer, to inform you that I have just beaten Final Doom!After a year of playing it off and on, I fi nished the series! It has taken twenty years, but by Carmack’s spectacles, I have fi nally done it! Daniel HendrixGreat going! Now, how’s your progress on Ultima III coming?

■ I always read PC Gamer to my friend Frankenstein. Frankenstein comments on each issue, saying, “Steam Bad!” However, after the August 2013 issue Frankenstein now says, “Steam Good!” I am confused. Is Steam bad? Is Steam good? Are we just admitting that if we want to play some of the best games around we are going to have to do it through Steam? Has Steam itself changed and given us PC gamers some of the freedoms we so much enjoy and sets us apart from consoles? I hope you have something for me to tell Frankenstein because I am very afraid of him when he is confused like this. Tom BaileyMuch like your miracle-of-modern-science friend, Steam just is. He should relate.

console within the game and using the command “+mlook”. I was a huge fan of both Quake and Unreal, but have always been more of a loyal id Software fan since I used to LAN it up in friends basements with oldies such as Doom, Quake and of course my personal favorite of all time, Quake 3. Ryan J. Rath

You’re right that Quake was first with +mlook, but don’t forget that both Doom and Wolfenstein 3D would let you look left and right with the mouse, too. It’s a good thing that mouse look caught on: imagine trying to play Rising Storm

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Return to Rapture

BioShock Infinite goes all film noir in its next DLC, Burial At Sea

THE TOP STORY

There’s always a lighthouse. There’s always a man. There’s always a city. And when the man is a private detective in a bad place,

there’s always going to be a dame. Her name is Elizabeth, her hair is raven dark, and she wraps her lips around a cigarette in classic femme fatale style. Of course, this being Rapture, it’s lit with the flick of a finger. At the bottom of the Atlantic.

BioShock Infinite’s two-part narrative DLC Burial At Sea, described by creator Ken Levine as “a love letter to the fans,” isn’t what most of them were expecting,

Little is known about the actual story. What has been revealed focuses firmly on mood—not least the Burial At Sea promo art, which is a clear homage to the movie This Gun For Hire. We do know that a large section takes place in a department store turned prison for Fontaine’s people, and that “some” characters will return along with the expected Little Sisters and Big Daddies. Rapture itself looks to be the real star, taking advantage of Infinite’s engine to look better than ever, while promising a more calculated approach to combat than Infinite’s open warfare.

Release dates for the two parts have yet to be announced, but each will be around $15. Together, they make up the Season Pass content, along with the already released Clash in the Clouds. Richard Cobbett

but couldn’t be much more exciting. It’s a chance to visit Rapture before the fall—literally, on the eve of it—and meet the people there before they descended into full-on splice craziness.

Whether it’s our Booker and Elizabeth remains to be seen, along with how tightly the story is connected to Infinite’s interdimensional tale—although Noir Elizabeth still has her thimble and Noir Booker still has his AD scar. Elizabeth is also set to be the playable character in the second part, hopefully offering a better chance to play with her tear-ripping powers than Infinite did.

What’s a dame like you doing in a dream-built underwater city like this?

12 NOVEMBER 2013

lease, a moment. The Spy is busy, gloved finger passing across the vintage beverages in his chateau’s wine cellar in

search of the perfect toast for Eidos Montreal’s Stephane D’Astous. For what achievement would The Spy consider breaking open an adequate Pinot Grigot? For walking away from parent company Square over Tomb Raider’s lackluster three million sales, publicly calling his bosses out for “lack of leadership, lack of courage and the lack of communication.”

While there are two sides to every story, that was far more fun than the average resignation. The Spy loves the smell of bridges burning in the morning. For a comparison though, note that Take Two is openly thrilled that BioShock Infinite has topped four million sales in about the same amount of time.

D’Astous is far from the only angry ex-employee of late. As a hardware specialist working on augmented reality, Jeri Ellsworth was always likely to stand out among Valve’s army of software types. With that company’s open structure, and access to a money vault that would drown Scrooge McDuck, you’d think she’d have all the support in the world for making “Cool Stuff.” But no.

“It felt a lot like high school,” she says. “There are popular kids that have acquired power, then there’s the troublemakers, and then everyone in between.” The cliquishness apparently extends to Valve’s insistence on rigorous group interviews, making it a nightmare to acquire specialists if they don’t feel right to people they would never be working with.

“We had a machine shop with millions of dollars of equipment in it and couldn’t hire a machinist for $40,000 a year to manufacture machine parts for it. Because they were worried that bringing in a machinist would hurt their precious culture.”

There is at least one silver lining. After being fired, Ellsworth and her team were able to continue their project. When the time came to confront Gabe Newell, she told him, “You should fund this externally or give it to us.” There was a lawyer in the room and Gabe just turned to him and said “Give it to ‘em.” So, that’s good. Still, The Spy suspects that not many hardware virtuosos will be submitting resumes to Valve in the near future.

Not every corporate decision has to be met with such opprobrium, if you’ll pardon The Spy’s attempt to get the most use possible out of this Word of the Day calendar. It’s now 10 years since Knights of the Old Republic and a little bit less since Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, development being slightly trickier than just pressing the Make Game button. That game stands as a beautiful deconstruction of Star Wars as much as a sequel, or at least it did after the fans

finished making it. Chris Avellone has finally gone on the record about what KotOR 3 would have been, explaining that its star, The Exile, would meet up with super-Jedi Revan in a quest to stop a distant army of Sith Lords from returning. “If they could shape entire planets or galaxies or nebulas, and they had all these slave races at their disposal, how cool would that be, to go into the heart of darkness and you’re the lone Jedi and/or new Sith confronting these guys? What would that be like? I thought that would be pretty epic.”

Sadly, LucasArts showed little interest in a KotOR 3 that would have included, among other things, robot assassin HK-47 reduced to a sarcastic backpack providing covering fire. They chose instead the path of apathy and bad sequels until they were shut down. “It felt like we were pitching and pitching and it just wasn’t going anywhere, and at some point people just drew a line and said, ‘It’s just not going to happen.’” Boo!

If you have as much Sauvignon to spare as The Spy, you may wish to splutter some after hearing a few of the titles LucasArts were interested in—Star Wars: Vader, Star Wars: Han Solo, Star Wars: Jedi Outlaw, and The Spy’s favorite, Star Wars: Scum and Villainy. These names come to us from a book called Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts, which also quietly confirms that there was never a Star Wars: Gungan Death Squad in the offing.

Incidentally, here’s a sequel hint The Spy wasn’t expecting: Bully 2 from Rockstar. Take Two hasn’t announced anything, but it has bothered getting the trademark. That’s more than The Spy ever does when he doesn’t intend to do anything, with the exception of his upcoming snooze Boring Sunday Afternoon XVIITM.

Spy out. The Spy

Sadly, LucasArts showed little interest

in a KotOR 3.

The Spy never goes where he’s not wanted. He almost never leaves his house.

BUT WHO WATCHES THE SPY?

Creating a new army means founding a legion—and you have a finite number of these.

18 NOVEMBER 2013

visuals and combat, it’s still a Total War game. It runs on a year-old gaming rig, and it controls much as Total War always has. The changes to the formula come later, and more subtly.

Returning to the Capua scenario for a second playthrough, I take a minute to settle the camera at about chest-height in a unit of Roman hastati. The low orange sun glares off their bronze helmets. Dry Italian grass waves in the breeze. There’s the sound of crickets, and the odd cough. The men speak to one another in short, pre-recorded speeches. “We will claim glory this day!” comes a clipped, formal voice. “Good luck with that, sir,” responds a man at the back.

There’s a good chance these lines will get repetitive after a while, but that sense of

standing in a field before battle with my soldiers is not something I’ve experienced in a Total War game before. I’ve gazed appreciatively at a beautifully rendered Japanese dusk more than once, but I’ve never felt the urge to immediately take a vacation in the Italian countryside.

The second thing that strikes me is the new relevance of line-of-sight. One of the early missions tells you to move a unit into a scouting position to find the enemy army, never a concern in previous Total Wars. Knowing that my unit of velites are now exposed because they can see the enemy—but also knowing that the enemy will be responding to them, not the column of cavalry I’m moving through some nearby woodland—is a thrilling tactical moment. Later, I achieve the same thing during a

coastal skirmish by moving a pair of Roman warships up the shoreline to keep track of an advancing Samnite vanguard.

Finally, there are the sweeping changes to the campaign. The user interface is cleaner: diplomacy, finances, and city management are handled via transparent panels rather than screen-dominating scrolls, and the presence of administrative provinces that enable you to manage multiple cities at once makes it easier to tell when you’re ready to end a turn.

The most striking change, however, is that individual units of soldiers can no longer move on the campaign map without a general to command them. Creating a new army means formally founding a legion or a fleet, and you have a finite amount of these available based on your progress. Legions are named and have a distinctive banner, and level-up in a similar way to their generals. Towards the end of my campaign, for example, Silanus’s own abilities merged with his legion’s traditions to create a fighting force focused on unmounted melee combat.

Unit recruitment is now handled entirely within the army interface. If they’re in friendly territory, this means mustering troops, and when on a campaign this switches over to mercenaries and auxiliaries. This removes the busywork of funneling reinforcements from cities to armies in the field, resulting in fewer battles, with greater consequences. Losing a legion, as it was in history, is a big deal.

I’m impressed by what I’ve seen so far. It’s not the whole game, and there’s still time for Empire-style instability to mar what is otherwise shaping up to be a very exciting package. That said, I’m considering booking some time off for a Roman vacation. Chris Thursten

READ ME

DEVELOPER

Creative Assembly

PUBLISHER

Sega

LINK

www.totalwar.com

RELEASE SEPTEMBER 3

Individual units can no longer move on the campaign map without a general.

TOTAL WAR

ROME II PLAYED IT Strolling in the Italian countryside with 10,000 armed friends

There’s a way of looking at a Rome II battle that sits at neither its most extreme distance—the top-down, tactical map—or its

closest close-up. Zoom out slightly further than the regular Total War bird’s-eye-view and the factional color of each unit is emphasized until individual men look like blotches of red and blue paint.

It’s a conceit to enable you to identify troop movements at the extreme distances of the game’s massive maps. I didn’t appreciate its atmospheric value until the aftermath of the Battle of Salernum, when the bodies of slain Samnite defenders and their Roman enemies made it look, from above, like Jackson Pollock had dumped a load of blue and red paint buckets all over a coastal Italian town.

I’ve been playing Rome II’s prologue, a two- to three-hour mini-campaign that acts as a tutorial and establishes the status quo for the start of the campaign proper.

You play Gaius Fulvius Silanus, a fictional Roman

infantry commander who rises to the rank of proconsul

following a series of victories against the Samnites, an adversary of Rome in

the years before the unification of the Italian peninsula. The first battle, defending Capua against Samnite invaders, establishes the basics of camera control, unit movement, and so on. Later, Silanus and his forces hold a mountain pass and,

pressing through into Samnite territory, launch an attack on unwalled Salernum.

Having seen Rome II in multiple stages of development, my first impression is a strange kind of relief, that for all of the overhauled

NOVEMBER 2013 19

FIRST LOOK Trade your way to power in Renaissance Europe

RISE OF VENICE

Ah, the port of Venice. The Renaissance is in full flow. Trading ships paddle the globe, laden with exotic goods. It’s the

era of merchant kings; the air is thick with the smell of profit, opportunity, and, this being the 1400s, a pervasive hint of poop.

Mercifully, Rise of Venice lifts you high above the stinking streets, giving you mastery of a lovely 3D map of the Mediterranean bathed in golden vacation sunshine. Twenty-five cities support a simulated economy that you can exploit to grow a business empire. The ebb and flow of market forces plays across 22 resources, all subject to spikes and crashes tied to the shifting needs of the population centers.

It’s a great setting for a business sim laced with political intrigue. Kalypso sees Venice as a merging of expertise from its work on the Patrician and Port Royale series, and the influence of the latter is obvious in the

swarming trade vessels that dominate the map. These are your primary source of income. You’ll want to pinpoint high demand and sketch efficient sea routes to feed it. But carefully: advanced resources require you to combine basic goods, which means the shortage or abundance of a single resource can have complex ripple effects on surrounding trade. Venice builds into a dynamic web of inter-reliant

numbers that can be tugged and prodded endlessly. I’ve lost entire days to one-more-turn strategy games, and this vast economic Rubik’s cube has me worried.

Two elements suggest this could foster Civ-level “just one more hour” play sessions. Firstly, Kalypso understands that you need a measured dash of instability to keep trade economics from mediating into boring stability. Natural disasters pop up

occasionally to give your abacus a good kick. Mount Vesuvius might pop its top and start vomiting molten lava into the laps of Napolese citizens. Forest fires, earthquakes, and sandstorms can cause further destruction. Destruction creates need. Need means profit.

Cold-hearted profiteering will certainly aid the growth of your empire, but there are softer ways to gain influence. This is where the second addictive element comes in. Venice is ruled by the Council of Ten. You can perform missions for council members or protect their trade interests to gain influence. To level up and grow your fleet, you need to pass votes through the council. Suddenly those business interests are competing with the need to make nice with Venice’s opulent merchant families.

You can also marry into influential positions, building a full family tree and assigning members to key roles. There’s fighting too, which takes place at sea with a surprisingly deep little minigame. Rise of Venice could be 2013’s biggest surprise for sim and strategy fans. Tom Senior

READ ME

DEVELOPER

Kalypso Media

PUBLISHER

In-house

LINK

www.bit.ly/RoVenice

Renaissance politics: a game for all the dynasty.

This is a great setting for a business sim laced with political intrigue.

RELEASE SEPTEMBER

Environmental disasters will makea mess of your account books.

Watch out for little girls in red raincoats.

22 NOVEMBER 2013

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PLAYED IT Weathering a 2D eat-’em-up

RAINWORLD

You are a white, fluffy, snow weasel-like creature trying to survive a cold, rusting world, where rain falls with such bone-

crushing force it will kill you if you don’t get back to your nest in time.

There are lizards. Awful lizards. As you leap around, cutely hanging from poles, attempting to hunt your own dinner of flapping, flocking bats, the lizards are trying to trap you between their crushing jaws. Your only defenses are running away and throwing spears, and both do little to prolong your life.

Rain World in its current embryonic form is hard. Its 2D, single-screen levels require careful manipulation of your physics-enabled character in order to navigate them, and even if you manage to eat the bats, skewer the lizards, and perform each jump swiftly, it’s easy to lose track of time and find yourself pummeled by pennies from heaven.

I keep coming back to it, even though the version Joar Jakobsson provided is incomplete, because the animation of each of its characters gives everything a tremendous sense of life and a satisfying

snap whenever you take that life away. It’s still some way from being done, but you can follow the game’s progress on the regularly updated development log at the link on the left. Graham Smith

READ ME

DEVELOPER

Joar Jakobsson

PUBLISHER

Self-published

LINK

www.bit.ly/19uMFGq

RELEASE 2014

I leap around, cutely hanging from poles, hunting my dinner.

Bat-things will fly to their nests when you come near.

The game will comewith a level editor.

ItÕs easy to end up movingbackwards in the tunnels.

26 NOVEMBER 2013

PLAYED IT Batman beats Batman—unless there’s a Joker in the mix

INFINITE CRISIS

It’s easy to see that Turbine’s Infinite Crisis has taken a lot of design cues from League of Legends. Each DC Comics hero or villain has four spells

and a passive ability, plus two stolen superpowers—Turbine’s version of LoL’s Summoner Spells. The monetization path mirrors Riot’s, with two in-game currencies. In fact, the first playable map, dubbed Gotham Heights, is a near mirror image of LoL’s Crystal Scar map for Dominion, where players vie for control of points throughout the map.

So it’s smart, then, that Turbine’s first Dota-alike—after years of developing MMOs like Dungeons & Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and Asheron’s Call—focuses so much on character design to differentiate it from the pack. With the entire DC roster at its disposal, Turbine has twisted the multiverse concept familiar

to DC comic book fans to allow for multiple versions of popular characters. For instance, the beta offers Nightmare Batman—what Bruce Wayne might have become without his nagging essence of

humanity. These characters aren’t simply new skins, but discrete champions with unique abilities. Creative director Cardell Kerr says that Turbine’s goal is to make a game that does “justice to what DC characters and heroes are about.” Even if many of the characters feel slightly similar at this point, the heroes I got to sample all passed the fun test.

The inevitable LoL comparisons also give Infinite Crisis a chance to become more accessible to first time action-RTS

players. Last hitting is no longer a requirement—the credits you would have received turn into a drop that anyone on your team can grab. You don’t even have to pick which spell you want to upgrade or which item to buy because the game will suggest one, though that supersedes the traditional upgrade and crafting paths that League uses. There’s the chance that experienced players will be turned off, but Turbine is clearly betting that expanding the player base will be more valuable.

Another of Infinite Crisis’s defining attributes is destructible environments. Although it doesn’t play the biggest part in Gotham Heights, it’s refreshing to see your attacks and abilities affect the game world, even if it’s as basic as exploding cars. Lead designer Ryan Bednar says he wants players to be able “to change the map, to change the terrain, to open up paths you couldn’t get to before.”

Destruction should be more important in Infinite Crisis’s next map, Coast City, the home of the Green Lantern. It’s a more traditional action-RTS map: two lanes, and a center “urban jungle” with fully destructible areas that will allow players to open up new paths to gank from, and to get access to a boss that drops a targetable superweapon when defeated. Kerr promises that the map will be “something that no one’s ever seen before.”

I’m not too sure about Gotham Heights, but I’m excited to see how IC’s characters play on a more traditional map with a laning phase and standard objectives. The game’s similarity to LoL isn’t necessarily a bad thing because Infinite Crisis plays competently, but I’m not yet convinced that it isn’t just a simplified League of Legends with DC characters in tow. Ben Kim

READ ME

DEVELOPER

Turbine

PUBLISHER

Warner Bros

Interactive

LINK

www.infinite

crisis.com

The barriers that keep the heroes and villains in their parallel universes have been broken down. Oops.

Zap! Blam! Kapow! Etc.

The game will launch with 14 DC Comics characters, and more to come.

Turbine has twisted the multiverse concept to allow many versions of popular characters.

RELEASE 2013

28 NOVEMBER 2013

PLAYED IT The leaner second edition of Magicka’s overstuffed spellbook

MAGICKA

WIZARD WARS

Fire plus Arcane plus Lightning equals, um, what exactly? Help me out here, I never paid attention in school.

My urgent need to perform this elemental arithmetic can only mean one thing: I’m playing a Magicka game. Arrowhead’s 2011 action-RPG abandoned spellcasting conventions such as mana points and charge times to turn magic into a creative free-for-all—you’d chuck two parts fire, two parts earth and one part healing in the figurative cauldron, and then cast it on yourself and see what happened (it hurt). Free-to-play Wizard Wars hones this idea before placing it in a competitive, team-based context where the slapstick anarchy that results from such freedom makes a certain kind of sense.

There’s not quite as much freedom as before, however, as Magicka’s new custodians at Paradox North have reduced the amount of toil and trouble

required for a single spell. You can only mix three ingredients now, rather than five, a reduction which brings the first game’s thousands of possible spell combinations crashing down to a much more workable

figure in the low hundreds. It makes sense from the perspective of game-balance, and hundreds of spells is more than I can keep up with when I’m locked in a magical duel, anyway. But it’s always a shame to see big heaped bucketfuls of sand removed from a sandbox.

“It was fairly obvious that three [spell slots] would work,” says Niclas Karlsson, game designer for Wizard Wars. “We looked at the numbers and said, ‘OK, how many spell combinations do you get when you command eight elements?’ And it was

just a way too big number. We got it down to three because that gave us three digits instead of four.”

In practice, it seems entirely the right call: three slots suits the rapid pace of Wizard Wars perfectly, and still allows for an impossible-to-track number of strange spell interactions and effect chains. On top of the base interaction between elements themselves (you can cast water spells to douse flaming teammates, who will then be vulnerable to lightning effects), there are the hybrid effects you get from combining

elements (mixing two parts arcane with one part lightning gives your occult death beam a flashy splash of fizz) as well as the inherent physical properties of each element. A spell combination with earth at its heart will come out as a projectile rather than a stream, unless you combine earth with the “shield” element, in which case you’ll get a jagged, rocky wall rising from the ground. There’s a rich and complicated set of possibilities here, so in the heat of battle I naturally found myself spamming triple-fire beams and nothing else.

But while the sheer breadth of spell combinations has been whittled down in Wizard Wars, the game does have some subtle tactical enhancements. The movement system has been overhauled, meaning you can now move around and spellcast at the same time. “It keeps things fast-paced,” explains Karlsson. This faster pace translates into players chasing after one another while a geyser of flame bursts from their hand. It suits Wizard War’s map design, too. Despite the superficial likeness (cartoony visuals, disposable NPC allies, funneled map design), what we have here is essentially an antidote to the action-RTS. An anti-Dota, if you will. Its matches are short, savage tussles over the control of three spawn points. The map’s claustrophobic design leads naturally to massive conflagrations in which up to eight

READ ME

DEVELOPER

Paradox North

PUBLISHER

Paradox Interactive

LINK

www.signup.wizardwars.com

Special attacks do spectacular damage, but lackinvention: everyone has the same powers.

It’s a shame to see big heaped bucketfuls of sand removed from a sandbox.

30 NOVEMBER 2013

wizards hurl spur-of-the moment magic at one another in a confined space, quite possibly killing themselves and their teammates in the process.

Friendly fire underpinned a lot of the comedy in Magicka, such as those moments when, in an attempt to blast an imperilled ally with healing energy, you accidentally hit the ice key instead. But Wizard Wars’ PvP-focus makes the inclusion of friendly fire riskier. It’s hard not to hit your allies at times, and while that certainly adds tactical nuance to combat, it runs the risk of frustration.

“It was a hard choice,” admits Niclas. “But we felt that the pros outweighed the cons. Friendly fire enables us to give the player tactical decisions, because if you could fire all spells at any point of time then the choice you made wouldn’t be that important. But if casting lightning in a situation will harm your friends more than an arcane beam would, then that makes for an interesting choice, especially if there are still advantages to doing so.”

Hectic, scrappy, and silly, Wizard Wars is undoubtedly a Magicka game, filled with unexpected rewards for experimentation and catastrophic cause-and-effect. Magicka’s inventive take on spellcasting has found a natural home in this PvP-focused context, and Wizard Wars just about makes the case for fewer ingredients in a stronger brew. Craig Owens

Those unfortunate cardboard sheep don’t tend to last long, poor things.

Details are few on how microtransactions will work, but they won’t just be cosmetic.

You can’t enchant your weapons now,making their base stats more important.

Why summon Death when you can combine ice and lightning in a single attack?

RELEASE TBA

NOVEMBER 2013 31

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Meaner foes need harsher heroes. Meet the supersoldiers of XCOM:

ENEMY WITHIN by Tom Senior

NOVEMBER 2013 35

E A R T H ’ S N E W

D E F E N D E R S

XCOM: ENEMY WITHIN

COM: Enemy Within replaces Enemy Unknown’s opening Arthur C Clarke quote with a pearl from American polymath R. Buckminster Fuller.

“Those who play with the Devil’s toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword.”

It captures the central theme of this major expansion: how far are you prepared to warp your soldiers with alien tech before they lose touch with the race they’re defending? Fuller’s words do fall slightly askew, though. It’s not a sword, it’s a giant rocket-powered robot fist.

That fist belongs to Rebecca “Freya” Berry, a US soldier strapped into a ten-foot-tall mech suit. I’m playing through a battle at Firaxis HQ, Maryland, surrounded by a squadron of design leads waiting to see what I’ll do with this destructive new toy. The XCOM fundamentals remain unchanged: you build a base, research alien tech, conduct autopsies and invent new gear for your soldiers to utilize in turn-based human vs. alien skirmishes. Enemy Within introduces new enemies, units, classes, gear, abilities, maps, and more to grow that base game into something bigger, tougher, and full of giant robots.

Mech-Freya is standing next to a tractor in the dark. I’m using my robo-soldier as a unmissable lump of bait, but I’ve played XCOM. I know how this goes. You throw a lone soldier forward and before you know it they’re knee-deep in little grey men blasting them in the flanks. Not today. I select my nearby assault soldier, Marco “Maestro” Bruno, and have him take a covering position in the back of a pickup truck a few feet

behind Freya. To my delight, he confirms the order in Spanish. Soldiers speak their native tongues in Enemy Within, rather than the generic US voices of old. XCOM’s team of international super-warriors will finally sound that way.

A pair of Sectoids dart nervously into the light like rabbits in an Attenborough documentary. A hulking shadow follows them. Is it the alien close combat specialist, the monstrous Berserker? No. It’s another Sectoid, in a tall, sleek exoskeleton of his own. That’s new. He looks both fearsome and adorable, but that won’t save him. I’m going to make my big thing punch their big thing, for science.

Freya lopes forward with surprising grace and engages the enemy robot. The “Mechtoid” tries to grapple his attacker, but he’s having

trouble processing the fact that a pair of rocket thrusters have just popped out of Freya’s right hand and started firing. With a crunch, the human mech pilot pounds the alien into the earth. Firaxis have gone to town on these new animations. Mechs will mercilessly obliterate enemies of all sizes in close combat, if they have the correct upgrades. I’m told that the killing blow can even knock their targets back a distance. They can punch enemies over precipices. They can punch enemies through walls, creating openings and shot opportunities. They can punch enemies into cars to blow them up. I like them already.

Mechs serve as an entirely new class. You’ll need a new Cybernetics Lab to construct them, but once you’ve got that, you can convert an existing soldier into a robo-soldier. They’ll gain a passive benefit based on their former role—assault soldiers will be more resistant to close

x

36 NOVEMBER 2013

Rocket thrusters have just popped out of Freya’s right hand and started firing

SPEC YOUR MECH New abilities

Electric pulse

Stuns enemy

robots.

Healing Mist

Helps nearby

allies recover

Proxy mines

Stop charging

enemies.

Grenade launcher

Great for tight

crowds.

Mega Fist

One-on-one

punching.

combat damage, for example—but their skill tree will be replaced by a new robotic one, and their equipment slots will only be able to hold new mech gear that can be researched by your scientists. Offensive gear includes the aforementioned doom-fist, a grenade launcher and heavy weapons, which—like the standard XCOM weapon variants—come in three tiers: minigun, railgun, and particle cannon. They can also equip other gadgets, such as jet boots to get them to higher ground, and a healing mist that helps out nearby allies.

Back at base, the augmented forms of your mech soldiers will wander around outside of their suits, sparing us the sight of a man trying to eat breakfast with a Gatling gun for an

arm. Just because they can detach themselves from their battle shell doesn’t mean they aren’t disfigured. Holes have been carved into their bodies to allow for the interface implants. When you commission a mech conversion, you’re asking a soldier to sacrifice their body to your cause, a troubling scenario that I imagine Firaxis enhancing with some grotesque conversion scenes. “Such scenes may or may not be in the game,” laughs lead designer Ananda Gupta.

I ask Gupta how far the moral ambiguity goes. It’s potentially a significant tonal shift from Enemy Unknown which, in its broadest strokes, was a positive story about

international unity and the power of

“Welcome to planet Earth!”

“I’ll just hide behindthis liquid oxygen.”

Superpowers require icky alien implants.

Enemy Within will provide a host of new maps.

NOVEMBER 2013 37

human innovation. “We definitely did not want to go very dark,” he says. “You are still the good guys, you are still XCOM, you’re still defending the world against the alien invasion.”

I’d buy that if it was just about the mech conversions, but there’s another breed of soldiers that apply the “enemy within” theme quite literally. I scan the battlefield and find my sniper, Thomas “Tireur” Durard, a genetically modified human fused with the processed flesh of captured aliens. He’s hard to see thanks to the camouflage biotech implanted in his skin, but he de-cloaks as I move him to an elevated position, and I notice that he’s wearing new armor. GM soldiers have visual variants for all of Enemy Unknown’s armor types to set them apart from standard plods. They’re still human, to outward appearances, but those alien molecules grant them superhuman abilities. When Tommy McAlien reaches his destination, he leaps 10 feet into the air to reach his sniper perch, the show-off.

Like psychic abilities, genetic modifications are also applied to a trooper’s class skills, added to their brains, eyes, skin, leg, and chest regions using material recovered from autopsies in a new Genetics Lab.

I’m just starting to feel sorry for the aliens when another Mechtoid stomps out of the gloom. One of his flanking Sectoids hangs back and

bestows a pink psychic buff on the bot, granting him an extra few bars of health. Those vanish immediately when my GM sniper shoots the enemy mech’s little helper in the head. Then I have Freya hit the mech really hard with her huge metal hand. My heavy weapon guy, Edmundo “El Cid” Ramos goes for a killing blow, but fluffs the shot and sprays plasma into the sky. It’s all down to the Maestro to finish the job. It’s a 38 percent chance to hit, but his aim is true. The Mechtoid collapses. Maestro cocks his laser shotgun one-handed and drops a quick Spanish curse on the corpse.

The turn isn’t over. There’s one Sectoid left in view, hovering uncertainly near a forklift. You picked the wrong farm to accidentally crash land in, buddy, Edmundo might say, in Spanish, if he had any action points left. I mobilize my ace in the hole, a second mech piloted by a laid back German fellow wielding a railgun and a huge flamethrower. There’s only enough fuel for a couple of sprays, but I select the flamer, angle a large red aiming cone squarely over the little survivor, and watch the mech douse the entire area in fire. The Sectoid is vaporised instantly. Everything touched by the attack is charred, and remains on fire for a few turns after.

If this all sounds a bit easy, it is. But I’m rolling with an unusually powerful team to get a proper look at Enemy Within’s new gadgets, and there are powerful new enemies that Firaxis aren’t ready to show yet. It’ll take a lot of work to afford two mechs and genetically-modified soldiers in the same team in a campaign. Mechs are bought with a new and scarce resource called Meld that can only be retrieved by walking up to glowing

yellow canisters in maps and slurping their contents before their turn limit runs out. Firaxis want to use these precious, time-sensitive resources to draw players into XCOM’s maps a little quicker. They also serve as another design knot, pulling together the turn-based battles and the strategic overlay that governs base building. Pick up Meld in a fight, send the Meld to the Cybernetics Lab, buy upgrades and mechs that you can deploy in the next fight. It’s loops like this that bring XCOM’s various elements into cohesion, and the separate resource means you’ll still have money to upgrade your ordinary humans as you see fit. Firaxis estimate that good players will be able to sustain two or three

Here I come to savethe day!

You want me to get in that thing?

Sectoids get to upgrade to giant mechs, too.

38 NOVEMBER 2013

mechs during a campaign.The two mechs in my uber-squad

make a terrifying vanguard as they perform a final sweep of the area. The dark farmland zone, a throwback to the original 1994 game, is one of two new areas I’ve seen. The other was on the top of a dam, and showcased an impressive vista in the background. Enemy Within will add many, many new maps, and rework all of Enemy Unknown’s to support Meld canisters. The number of extra arenas hasn’t been finalized, but Gupta estimates that the odds of not seeing a new map in your first three missions are somewhere in the range of one in 10,000.

I approach the entrance to the downed alien vessel cautiously. Yes! An Outsider—the alien pilots you find at every crash site—finally materializes, and makes to leave his ship. Sadly for him, I put a two-ton mech at the door on Overwatch. At the first sign of movement, my man lets loose a blistering railgun blast.

My people survived, this time, but Gupta tells me that if someone had popped their cybernetic clogs, the updated memorial would have recorded the date and cause of the soldier’s death as well as their name. I mull over some of the losses I took in last year’s campaign. “Killed by incidental car explosion” doesn’t sound quite as impressive as “lasered to death by giant alien robot,” which implies some significant progress in the heroic death department. Enemy

Within will let you award medals to special squaddies for as-yet-unspecified performance benefits.

Many more tweaks have been made under the hood. Firaxis tell me that one of the big advantages to doing a proper expansion, rather than incremental DLC, is that it’s allowed the team to delve deep into the

codebase and devote the time needed to some serious rewiring. This has enabled them to fix the notorious enemy teleporting bug, and a few bugs that would deny soldiers their hard-earned flanking bonuses. They’ve also made lots of what they call “quality of life” improvements. Cover can be targeted by explosive weapons. Objects and enemies within blast radius now gain a red scanline effect that makes it clear what is and isn’t being targeted by the attack. If you take a squaddie out of your lineup, their gear is placed into an easily accessible locker, so you won’t have to check every squad member to see who has that arc thrower you need. It’s a collection of small but significant changes that the community has been requesting since Enemy Unknown released.

All of these additions add up to a chunky and exciting expansion for

XCOM, but there’s definitely more to Enemy Within than I’ve seen so far. Gupta describes the campaign as being “like the director’s cut, the ultimate version of the game,” but also alludes to “a few new story beats.” My questions about base invasions and a rumored rogue human antagonist element were stonewalled. “There are some pretty big additions in terms of the strategy layer and the situation room,” Gupta teased, “but we can’t talk about them yet.”

I suddenly envy the psychic soldiers of my Enemy Unknown campaign. I’d give up a percentage of my humanity to scan the room and extract all those hidden details. Come to think of it, I’d give at least an arm to have jet boots and a giant metal fist. That’s the appeal of Enemy Within: the Devil has all the best toys.

Good players will be able to sustain two or three mechs in a campaign.

XCOM: ENEMY WITHIN

Meanwhile, in Waco.

SEEK AND DESTROY Meet the Seeker

1 Stealth attacksSeekers can sneak behind

your soldier, unless they

have special armor, items,

or skills to detect them.

2 TentaclesFrom stealth mode,

Seekers strangle

units with their choaking

tentacles, causing massive

damage and stunning your

soldier until it’s damaged.

3 Part machineFiraxis designed

the Seekers to be a

weapon instead of a beast,

calling it, “a response to

XCOM from the aliens,”

says lead designer Ananda

4 Ranged attackIf it can’t get close

enough to strangle,

Seekers will fire plasma

blasts from its mandables.

4

1

2

3

NOVEMBER 2013 39

Emotions are a real pain, aren’t they? Think of all of the amazing things we could achieve if we didn’t feel anything other than the

momentary satisfaction of having our needs met. I’ve been playing The Sims 3 lately, after a visit to Maxis to see the hyper-popular life simulator’s upcoming sequel. In The Sims 3, tiny virtual me has no worries other than when he’s going to eat and when he’s going to sleep.

When the toilet breaks, he gets mad—but the satisfaction of fixing the toilet (something I never thought I’d particularly go for) is sufficient to send him bounding on his happy way. He doesn’t slack off and go eat ice cream in the bath because he’s feeling down. He isn’t compelled to lay into a punching bag after a rough trip to the supermarket. He doesn’t pass by a painting and find himself compelled to go create something of his own.

Instead, he’s focused, lean, and efficient. He’s had three books published and works out in the afternoon. I sort of wish I was him.

In The Sims 4, Maxis is bringing the full weight of emotion to bear on the shoulders of the game’s tiny automata. An argument might leave a Sim feeling

angry, while professional failure might lead to depression. A darkened room lit by flickering candles might spur your Sim into a “romantic” state, an emotion I suggested several unpublishable names for during my visit.

“We really want to dive deep and focus on the Sims’ emotional experience,” producer Ryan Vaughan says. “We feel like these Sims are more relatable and believable than ever, and the content supports that.”

Second that emotionThe emotion system replaces the binary happy and sad states of prior Sims with 14 feelings that impact that character’s behavior. An impressive new animation system enables everything from a Sim’s facial expression to their walk to be impacted by mood. It’ll even change the sound of their voice and what they talk about to other Sims.

THE SIMS 4 brings emotion to the series for the first time

by Chris Thursten

40 NOVEMBER 2013

RELEASE

2014

NOVEMBER 2013 41

If only my parties were this sophisticated in real life.

Your Sim can now multitask—for instance, cooking and arguing.

I’m starting to resent how much better my Sim’s life is than my own.

The construction toolset has been majorly updated.

Looks like these guys are winding up for a good treadmill session.

have some of that emotional weight transferred to them—a technique that could be called “revenge,” but is also another way of interacting with the time management game ticking away underneath every Sims session. I’m also told that Sims under the sway of “romance” will unlock the power to woohoo in the shower. Again, it’s not the word I’d have chosen.

You’ll also have greater control over the memories that come to define a Sim’s outlook on life. Unlike The Sims 3, where these sometimes felt arbitrary (“remember that time when I fixed the

toilet? That was great!”) you’ll assign emotional significance to events yourself. Reminiscing

about these later is a way of carrying, say, the emotional high following a wedding into

the years to come. That said, if you choose to make the associations more arbitrary, the game won’t stop you. “If you wanted, you could say that your Sim remembers a particular shower and he’s super ecstatic about it,” Pearson says. “That could be one of his moments.”

“It won’t be a situation where objectives simply have an emotional [connotation],” Franklin continues. “You

would-be astronaut is always angry at something. Angry Astronaut sounds like a pretty interesting guy.

“Depressed Sims make better writers,” quips executive producer Rachel Franklin during a presentation. There’s an uneasy ripple of laughter around the table. I consider asking if Sims that feel pleased with themselves give better presentations, but don’t.

My sentimental Sim“What’s fun, when we see some of the emergence come through, is chaining together things unexpectedly that you don’t plan for,” says producer Lindsay Pearson. “The fact that we have a walk overlay that’s really sad ends up being really funny when you have them walking over to make coffee in the morning and they sit there and sigh and slump, and you’re like, ‘Yeah! I’ve had that!’”

Many of the benefits unlocked by emotions take the form of new interactions with objects in the environment. Sad Sims can paint an exclusive set of paintings, for example, and then Sims that pass those paintings on the wall will

The new animations will shake things up for existing Sims players in other ways. Characters now move much more realistically, and in a series first, a group of Sims can walk down a staircase one by one without looking like they’re recreating the video for Daft Punk’s “Around The World.” Furthermore, you can direct people to multitask—watching TV while eating, for example, or telling anecdotes around the dinner table—in ways that make micromanaging your Sim’s individual needs less arbitrary. Fans of John Osborne will note that it is now possible to direct your Sims to have an argument while washing the dishes.

Maxis’s take on what emotions mean in practical terms is interesting. The most obvious system to implement would be one where you always wanted your Sims to be happy, but that’s not the case here: every emotion confers a benefit of some kind, even negative ones. If your character is enraged, you can direct them to work out on a treadmill more intensely. Not only will they burn off the anger, but the workout itself will be more effective.

This then feeds into the game’s broader objective, which is to populate the world with engaging characters: because athleticism is a prerequisite for working in the space program, you’ll probably want to ensure that your

42 NOVEMBER 2013

tweaking sliders to adjust somebody’s nose just isn’t fun. In The Sims 4, you sculpt your character by clicking and dragging on areas on their body, which highlight as your mouse passes over them. You can make your Sim tubby, thin, or gangly, give them a hooked nose or cram their eyes close together. Then, an array of other details—voice, musculature, their default walk—complete their personality.

Many of the ancillary systems that have been added to the third game over the years won’t be present in The Sims 4 when it launches next year: but what will be present is a more fundamentally detailed way to enact the life of the little person you’ve got in your head. I’ll be able to make a tiny me that does go and eat ice cream in the bath—and I suppose that’s a good thing.

won’t be thinking, ‘Oh man, I really want that new stove—but it’s the Sad Stove!’ It’s more selective than that.”

Nonetheless, the new system will make house planning more important and place greater emphasis on the things your Sims surrounds themselves with. I find the politics of The Sims

fascinating—it is unquestioningly consumerist in its outlook—but the way the emotion system ties into home decor is a conceit to support strategy and simulation, not a way to transmit the message that you should spend a lot of money on an exciting shower.

If you build it...Assisting in your quest to build an optimally depressing writer-cave is a comprehensive set of updates to the construction toolset. It’s far more intelligent than it has been in the past, despite looking broadly similar on the surface. You still lay out foundations, walls, and furniture on an isometric grid, but the game now recognizes when a walled-off area constitutes a room, and is capable of smartly rescaling and repositioning that room—decor and all—on the fly. No more redesigning an entire house because you made the kitchen one tile too narrow for the fridge you wanted.

It’ll also be possible to adjust ceiling height, allowing for much greater

architectural freedom. The game’s art style has shifted, too, away from what Maxis view as a Bostonian style towards an atmospheric Southern look featuring multi-level gallery houses that recall New Orleans. The world is still dazzlingly vibrant, but the color palette is being managed carefully: I see concept art for a night-time neighborhood drenched in deep purples and oranges, set off with dark green foliage. It’s an atmospheric image, and that’s not something I’ve associated with the series before.

The same attention has been paid to the Sims themselves. The new build-a-Sim tool works remarkably like the revamped EVE character creator that debuted with the MMO’s Incarna expansion: an instance of parallel thinking, I imagine, where two teams of developers realized in tandem that

THAT EMOTION The things Sims feel, and the skills it makes them better at

Elated

Socializing

Depressed

Writing

Inspired

Painting

Romantic

Dating

Angry

Exercising

Yeah that seems to be working. You might be getting some woohoo tonight, dude.

You can get the abs or curves you want, without a single sit-up.

The build-a-Sim tool is pretty sophisticated.

My Sim seems to have the motivation for working out that I lack in real life.

NOVEMBER 2013 43

EVERQUEST NEXT is shaking the foundations of the MMO

by Chris Thursten

’ve fallen through the floor in an MMO before. It’s not that uncommon—in the worst cases, all you need to do is send a GM a message and they’ll relocate you relatively painlessly. As

players, we generally accept that games break, and that sometimes you’ll end up tumbling somewhere you’re not supposed to be.

Tumbling somewhere you’re not supposed to be is part of EverQuest Next’s mission statement. SOE’s vision for the next generation of MMOs involves a gameworld that

is layered like Minecraft, with hand-designed fantasy landscapes on the surface and procedurally generated tunnels below. The next Norrath is built out of voxels—clever cubelets that can be generated, molded, and destroyed on the fly. At the most basic level, that means a surface world built out of destructible components. Demonstrating the game for the first time, game director David Georgeson showed how melee strikes and magic attacks can blow up walls and leave craters.

This is impressive simply as a visual effect, and adds a level of

responsiveness to the world that isn’t present in other games. Over time, this damage will repair itself to make way for fresh adventurers, and certain key areas won’t be destructible at all—but it’s what voxel technology has allowed SOE to do next that elevates it from impressive to important.

Break through the floor in EverQuest Next—either in the aftermath of an earth-shattering blow, or by casting a spell or picking up a shovel—and you’ll enter a subterranean cavern that is generated on the fly for you to explore. You’ll be

44 NOVEMBER 2013

able to hunt monsters, claim items, and conduct the rest of your MMO business in an environment that promises a new experience every time you enter it—and the deeper you go, the more you’ll encounter.

As well as differentiating the strata of the world through visual themes—underground lakes, crystal caves, the volcanic core—each layer corresponds to an era in the game’s lore, enabling you to encounter history first-hand as you pick through the remains of passed ages.

EverQuest Next is a reboot rather than a sequel. The key characters and

places of Norrath will return, but their alignments, appearance, and fates have been remixed. The creative freedom this gives SOE will be extended to the players as well.

Later in the year, SOE will release EverQuest Next Landmark—a freeform voxel-building game where players can claim plots of land, dig for resources, and build whatever they like with them. The obvious inspiration is Minecraft, right down to the random generation of landmasses on every server. Unlike Minecraft, however, Landmark’s construction tool allows for the

smooth carving of blocks: rough edges are possible, as are curves and perfect spheres. It’s impressive in action, like watching professional 3D software running in a game engine.

Players can then take the things they’ve made and list them for sale on Player Studio, SOE’s take on the Steam Workshop. If you buy one of these prefabs for real money and use them in your own constructions, any money you make will then earn royalties for the original creator. It’s Minecraft with microtransactions, where players have the chance to directly benefit. To say that it has

RELEASE

TBC

NOVEMBER 2013 45

EVERQUEST NEXT

EVERQUEST NEXT Build your character

EverQuest Next will introduce players to Norrath’s underworld.

the potential to be massive feels like an understatement. The only obstacles I can see are technological, and SOE will be under tremendous pressure to prove that its engine actually works.

The continued development of EverQuest Next will happen in collaboration with Landmark players. Through competitions and events, SOE will allow the community to decide which player-made structures are plucked from their Landmark landmasses and used in the final version of Norrath. Talking to the team about it, ideas spin out rapidly: plaques on temples crediting the

player who laid the foundation stones; buildings that cycle between different versions—each made by a different player—each time they’re destroyed and rebuilt.

“While not every player is capable of creative genius, there are groups and individuals that are,” says creative director Jeff Butler. “We want to find

those people and empower them.”This spirit of openness will, SOE

claim, define the rest of the game’s development. I asked art director Rosie Rappaport whether they would ever “hard code” parts of the environment in ways that players couldn’t. “We consider it cheating if we make our own [proprietary] tools,” she says. “That’s not our philosophy. We’re playing by the same rules that the players are.”

The new guardIt’s a radical rethinking of the way MMOs are made. EverQuest II has been experimenting with player-generated content for years, but nothing on this scale, and by and large the series is known as a preserve of the old guard: first-gen MMOers for whom EverQuest has provided a

steady backdrop for 14 years of life. After the public announcement of

EverQuest Next at SOE Live in Las Vegas, I wandered the showfloor and spoke to veteran players about whether SOE’s new vision resonated with them. A retired engineer told me that the inclusion of creative tools would provide a way into a series that

Players can take things they’ve made and list them for sale on Player Studio, SOE’s Steam Workshop.

WeaponsEach class will

have access to

two weapons,

and each weapon

comes with four

abilities. It won’t be

possible to swap

during combat.

ClassesPlayers pick one

of eight classes to

start with, and then

collect up to 40

more as they go. You

can switch between

classes at any time.

MovementItems and skills

unlock new ways

for your character

to move, like

double-jumps and

gliding. This ties

into the game’s

context-based

parkour system.

AbilitiesYou can combine

abilities from

different classes

to create the

character you

have in mind.

46 NOVEMBER 2013

Familiar characters from the EverQuest world will return.

Oh look, a new friend!

had meant a lot to his family but that he’d struggled to find a place for himself in. A group of younger raiders said that they’d absolutely beat their swords into pickaxes for a chance at getting a dungeon design into the game.

Surprisingly, few seemed bothered that the lore they’d invested years in was being shelved. Where I did encounter negativity, it stemmed from the game’s art style. EverQuest Next’s character design looks like a DreamWorks cartoon: characters are big-eyed and proportioned to express mood and action at a distance. For players invested in old EverQuest’s relative realism, it’s a disappointment: and, crucially, it’s a part of the game where (for now) the community does not have creative input.

On the other hand, the way EverQuest Next plans to revamp MMO content has the potential to restore some of the mystery of those early days. An emergent AI system gives each monster attributes that determine the type of environment they like: the example given was a group of orcs, who will gravitate towards isolated roads but avoid settled towns and guards. The developers won’t position these monsters manually: they’ll constantly be assessing the world against their preferences. This allows players to intervene to make areas less attractive to monsters—“killing them all the time” is one potential scenario—and as a result the positioning of enemies

the shape their solutions take will be player-determined—and, most importantly, permanent. Once a Rallying Call is finished, it’ll never be repeated, and SOE is planning the game months in advance.

Return in five years, and the cities you see may well have been built by players during a previous Call. If it works, this will be revolutionary: combining EVE-style dynamism with the reliability of a developer’s steering hand. It’s not simply that SOE are promising a responsive world: even at this early stage, they’re demonstrating the skill to back it up.

Once upon a time, players believed that MMO worlds would respond to what they did in them. Over the years, that promise has been eroded and replaced with other systems and other ways of rewarding the player. EverQuest Next promises to restore some of that initial optimism, and we hope that it succeeds: if it does, the ground is about to collapse beneath this long-stagnant genre.

in the world will change dynamically. In this way, players will see their actions reflected in the world.

If players choose not to act, they’ll see the effects of that too. I talked to lead designer Darrin McPherson about the consequences of leaving a crucial road between towns unguarded. “There’s no trade,” he says. “The banks close. It’s a ghost town—the people move out, or are terribly depressed. We don’t have to write it in text.”

We built this cityA sense of direction is provided by game-wide public quests called Rallying Calls. These will take place server by server and run over a period of two to three months, setting players a broad objective that breaks down into smaller tasks. The example given was founding a city: players will build the walls, clear the surrounding area and secure the town against eventual invaders. Although the strict beats of these events will be set by the developers,

Sony’s new ForgeLight engine will enhance the atmosphere.

NOVEMBER 2013 47

The PrinceTon review

YOU CAN LIVE THE DREAM

development programs are the best place to do that, for

several reasons. The most-cited reason was classes that

organize students into real world-style mixes of artists,

programmers, and designers and task them with building a

game from scratch.

Ichiro Lambe, founder of Dejobaan Games (makers of

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless

Disregard for Gravity) and graduate of Worcester

Polytechnic Institute, thinks this type of class is invaluable.

“The process of going through group projects from

beginning to end mirrors what we do in the real world

(except that there’s probably less craft beer involved).”

For Cory Haltinner, a Tech Artist at Utah Game Forge and

graduate of University of Utah, having professors on hand

to help out made the usually-independent experience even

more useful. “The professors were there to give a lending

hand or word of advice when asked, but for the most part,

we got to run the show. We had a team of 10, with a mix of

programmers and artists, and we had assigned leads in the

team to give us direction. We learned and grew together.”

It’s easy to become an indie game dev (just have a game

idea and start building it!), but brilliant games don’t come

into existence easily.

Actually creating them takes long hours, trained skills,

and lots of dedication. There are several ways to gain the

skills and experience you need to tackle the epic task that is

a gamer’s dream job, but some work better than others.

Many positions at big studios like EA and Blizzard require

formal training in a game development program, which

also claim to help potential indie developers. But how

much do these formal educations really help? To fnd out,

we tracked down graduates working in the games industry,

and the people hiring them.

REAL-WoRLD PRojECTsAll 20 game designers, programmers, artists, and hirers that

we spoke with are in agreement that the most important

thing you can do to get started as a game developer is to

make games. Make a lot of them.

All of them were also convinced that formal game

Want to make games for a living?

Get started with advice from the pros

GAME DEVELOPER CAREERS

DEsIGn LEADs / DEsIGnERs

These positions can be specially tasked with components of the design. A level

designer, for instance, or an interface designer.

salary: < 3 years: $44,758 3–6 years: $59,312 > 6 years: $77,065

ART DIRECToR / LEAD ARTIsT

Ironically, the top artist in a studio usually doesn’t work on much art. This person

coordinates other artists to make sure work is delivered on time and is consistent with

the vision driving the game.

salary: $107,206

CREATIvE DIRECToR / GEnERAL MAnAGER

These are the two heads of the studio. Confguration changes from company to

company, but generally, one person handles the creative side of things, the other

manages production and business.

salary: 3–6 years: $74,250 >6 years: $95,652+

LEAD DEsIGnER

The lead designer is in charge of realizing the overall design vision for the game,

steering the entire studio to realizing the ideas in the design document and

prototypes.

salary: 3–6 years: $74,250 >6 years: $95,652

THE PRInCETon REvIEW

Lambe pointed out another overlooked value of the

class: “It allows you to understand the hidden bits of the

game development process, like polish, tutorials, and the

realization that the f nal 20% of a project can take 120% of

the time.”

The rest of the graduates echoed their sentiments,

recommending that prospective students look for schools

and programs that emphasize these large projects that

emulate a real-world environment.

vALUABLE EXPosUREThe other most-cited benef t that formal game dev

programs confer is the perspective gained by working with

people in other disciplines.

Designers, programmers, and artists that worked side

by side taught each other the value that their varying

talents bring to a project. It trained them to work together

respectfully and collaboratively, which every game

developer (outside of a one-person project) does on a daily

basis.

But Chris Hughes, Co-founder of FGL and graduate of

sacred Heart University, thinks that even one-person indie

aspirants should go through this collaborative process.

“When you’re making a game by yourself, or with a small

team, it’s vital that you can be f exible and can understand

multiple areas of game development. There’s plenty of time

to work your way into a specialization, but it’s hard to go

back and learn something new.”

on the counterpoint, Ray ortgiesen, a technical game

designer at Game Loft Montreal and a graduate of

Champlain College, thinks even die-hard collaborators

need to try the solo approach once, and was happy that

his school off ered a course for it. “If [you want to be] a

game designer and you haven’t made a game where you

personally created every poorly drawn sprite and clumsy

line of code, you’re missing out!”

But couldn’t game dev hopefuls just do projects on their

own, outside of a formal program? Absolutely (and most

students I spoke with did that as well), but Alex schwartz,

founder of owlchemy Labs and graduate of WPI, thinks a

formal program provides huge benef ts.

“College isn’t the magic bullet that makes you successful.

It’s about putting yourself in a place and a mindset where

you can have the most possible opportunities to do

something great. It’s similar to the benef ts of working in

a shared space versus working at home in isolation. When

you work in a shared space, you increase the chance of

organic connections being formed. You put yourself in

a situation with a much higher chance of serendipitous

positive experiences occurring.”

Contacts are important, and most of the graduates we

spoke with also said they made connections and friends in

these collaborative courses that helped them either start,

or join, their f rst game dev studio.

FInAL ADvICELanding your f rst real game dev gig is a large hurdle to

overcome, and you need every little advantage you can

get (see the boxout on pg. 53 for more tips). The hirers we

spoke with stressed that they really do value formal training

on an applicant’s resume, mostly because it immediately

assures them of important things they can’t see in your

portfolio.

It tells them that you have experience working with

others collaboratively, and that you are trained in practical

skills like building game design docs, communicating

in meetings, working within scope, and being held

accountable to deadlines.

Many graduates we spoke with also recommended

attending schools with strong computer science programs,

even if you don’t want to be a programmer. They felt that

the extra emphasis trains you to be more effi cient in all of

your work, lets you impress interviewers with technical

knowledge, and gives you a more solid foundation to help

you continue to grow as you build games post-graduation.

Hopefully these game developers’ words of wisdom will

help you as you decide how you want to pursue your own

dream of making games for a living.

We got to run the show. We had a team of 10, with a mix of

programmers and artists, and we had assigned leads in the

team to give us direction. We learned and grew together.

ARTIsTs

The bigger the game, the more artists there are. They may be animators, world

builders, concept artists, UI artists, or whatever else might require an artist.

salary: < 3 years: $44,643 3–6 years: $61,667 > 6 years: $86,563

TECHnICAL DIRECToR / LEAD PRoGRAMMER

Head of the programming department. Must oversee the programming pool and

ensure that it makes each feature requested by the designers, and that those features

are in working order.

salary: $126,554

PRoDUCERs

The nerve center of a studio, these people try to make sure everything happens

on time and on budget. They keep all the diff erent pieces of the game moving and

coordinate between departments, providing additional resources where necessary.

salary: (Executive) 3–6 years: $102,500 > 6 years: $132,065

(Associate) <3 years: $42,500 3–6 years: $54,265 > 6 years: $60,278

(Mid-level) $76,532

gamestudio.champlain.edu

Rule No 56

STAY AHEAD OF THE GAME

Recognized as one of the top places to study game design,

Champlain College brings game development education to

the next level. To compete, students need to know how to

work the entire process from beginning to end — not just their

respective areas of study. At Champlain College, students work

together in a collaborative studio environment that mirrors

the tight-knit teams of the game industry. At Champlain,

experience matters.

THE GAME STUDIOat Champlain College

Ranked as top school for game design for four consecutive years

61 Sever Street | Worcester, MA 01609 | 508.373.9500

Home of

www.becker.edu

Course offerings:• Game art

• Game development & programming

• Game audio

• Game script writing

• 3D modeling & animation

• Game production & management

THE PRInCETon REvIEW

DEGREE PRoGRAMs: B.s. AnD M.s In InTERACTIvE MEDIA AnD GAME DEvEL-

oPMEnT

DEGREE PRoGRAMs: B.s. AnD M.s In InTERACTIvE MEDIA AnD GAME DEvEL-

oPMEnT

DEGREE PRoGRAMs: BA In FILM AnD MEDIA ARTs WITH EMPHAsIs In EnTER-

TAInMEnT ARTs & EnGInEERInG; Bs In CoMPUTER sCIEnCE WITH EMPHAsIs In

EnTERTAInMEnT ARTs & EnGInEERInG; MEAE In GAME ART, GEM EnGInEERInG,

GAME PRoDUCTIon, AnD TECHnICAL ART; Ms In DIGITAL MEDIA; PH.D. In

GRAPHICs AnD vIsUALIZATIon

DEGREE PRoGRAMs: GAMInG & AnIMATIon

WoRCEsTER PoLYTECHnIC InsTITUTEWoRCEsTER, MAssACHUsETTs

sACRED HEARTFAIRFIELD, ConnECTICUT

UnIvERsITY oF UTAHsALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

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Great Gaming schools

PRoGRAMMInG LEAD

Programming either works on the gameplay side or the tech side of the game. Each

side usually has a lead.

salary: < 3 years: $54,167 3–6 years: $81,722 > 6 years: $108,796

PRoGRAMMERs

These rival artists in number. Tech programmers work on engine technology and

the core underpinnings of the game. Gameplay programmers create the systems

conceived by designers.

salary: < 3 years: $53,488 3–6 years: $74,403 > 6 years: $99,502

AUDIo DIRECToR

since audio tends to be the smallest team at a studio, this supervisory position may

not exist, or this person may also play some of the other audio-related roles.

salary: $105,000

soUnD DEsIGnER

Works on creating sound eff ects and ambience, and also often contributes

placeholder sound eff ects for other parts of the design team so they can do tests

without committing to f nal audio assets.

salary: $83,182

QA LEAD

Coordinates between the QA department and the rest of the team to ensure the

team gives and provides clear feedback, and that QA testers are submitting good,

actionable bug reports.

salary: 3–6 years: $44,833 6 years: $62,500

QA TEsTER

Workhorses; saboteurs. Must play and break as much of a game as possible, as

often as possible, and submit specif c reports that feature clearly def ned problems

with directions on how to reproduce them.

salary: < 3 years: $31,250 3–6 years: $42,500

All occupational salaries are as reported in Game Developer Magazine’s annual salary survey.

GA

ME

DE

vE

Lo

PE

R C

AR

EE

Rs

1. BUILD SOMETHING SMALL

show that you can create a product from start to finish.

Don’t start with your dream game. just build something.

Make it small, low scope, and be sure that it actually

works.

2. PERFECT YOUR PORTFOLIO

nothing is more important that your portfolio. Make sure

your best work is front and center, and chop out old work

mercilessly. Your portfolio is only as good as the worst item

on it.

3. SPECIALIZE YOUR PITCH

Pitching yourself as a jack of all trades sounds like a

great idea, but it doesn’t help you appeal to the HR

manager looking for a kick-ass character designer. More

is not better; you’re watering yourself down.

4. NETWORK WITHOUT BEGGING

Get out there and show your work to everyone, but don’t

go to a networking event to ask for a job. Talk to others

and engage them in a conversation. Impress them and

follow up later.

5. ASK

Asking developers for introductions or advice is easy

and almost always works.

6. TRIM YOUR RÉSUMÉ

Think about what skills are needed for the position and

display that you have what it takes. If you can’t fill a page

with relevant content, go create something amazing first.

7. QA ISN’T THE WAY IN

showing amazing work in a portfolio is the best way

to get into a video game studio. Create side projects

and work on modding or indie projects to gain the

experience and portfolio material needed.

TIPs FoR GAMEDEv HoPEFULs

Breaking into the games industry is tough. Having a degree

helps, but what can you do to secure that all-important

first gig? Alex schwartz, founder of the independent games

studio owlchemy Labs, gets asked that question a lot. Here

are the seven tips he offers students looking to break into the

games industry.

Great Gaming schools

DEGREE PRoGRAMs: B.s. AnD M.s In InTERACTIvE MEDIA AnD GAME DEvEL-

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CHECK oUT WWW.PRInCETonREvIEW.CoM/GAME-DEsIGn FoR MoRE InFo.

If your passion is gaming, join a program ranked by the

Princeton Review as a top school for game and design.

✳ Benefit from small class sizes and work

alongside your peers and professional

developers to create a video game from

inception to completion.

✳ Develop the practical skills necessary to

work in the graphic design, web design,

animation, video, visual effects and game

design industry.

✳ Learn programming and implementation,

gameplay, preproduction and more. www.sacredheart.edu/gaming

To view student work

created by Gregory Pross

and Steve Kontos, please visit

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The WPI Interactive Media and Game Development

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Pandora, a game created by WPI students ryan Casey, Jill sauer, mike Frankfort, and

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Need to know

Whack a ward on the donkletron, I’m going to stick one up their jungle.

56 noveMBeR 2013

CARE!DOTA 2 is the most rewarding thing you can do with four other people and a lane full of creeps by Chris Thursten

revIeW

Talk Dota to me

Heroes in their own words

of the half-dozen people I started learning Dota 2 with, three still play regularly. Though there are hundreds of

thousands of players of our approximate skill level populating the matchmaking queues, the four of us are more like each other than we are like anyone else playing Valve’s isometric wizard-’em-up.

Spending a year learning to shuffle a gaggle of fantasy heroes up Dota’s teetering stack of rules and game mechanics will do that to you: we’ve developed a secret language of our own, one that runs parallel to the talk of creeps and lanes and farm and rax common to everyone who plays the game. “Whack a ward on the donkletron, I’m going to stick one up their jungle,” is a sentence I can say out loud and be completely understood by at least those three people. For some reason, there’s also a lot of singing involved. It’s a lot like being a sailor.

spiked punchA few months ago I was playing Dota 2 with one of those friends. He was controlling Bristleback, a gnarled humanoid echidna who specializes in punishing attacking players with a faceful of spiny quills. I was Tusk, a sort-of-Scandinavian walrus Viking who can punch people so hard that the words “WALRUS PUNCH!” are briefly writ in the sky.

It wasn’t an ideal pairing. We’d allowed the game to randomly select our heroes for us, a necessary risk if you’re going to learn everything you need to know about Dota’s hundred-plus playable characters. Of the five players on our team, it made the most sense for Bristleback and I to head to our faction’s offlane: the most dangerous of the three pathways that funnel waves of

from the enemy—ideally, we’d have brought our own ranged character to even the odds.

We were also equally dependent on gathering gold to purchase new equipment. This wasn’t ideal, either: every Dota hero needs to gather a different set of items to be effective, and normally teams will prioritize one hero over another when it comes to last-hitting lane creeps. The game indicates which heroes are likely to be played in which role, but whether that happens is something players have to arrange for themselves.

salvationThese are the politics of a nascent Dota match, and the pairing of Bristleback and I represented a backbench compromise. We did our best to split the last hits between us,

nipping to the frontline whenever a creep was low on health and being careful to deny the enemy

access to our own creeps by dispatching them ourselves. There was no avoiding the odd tussle with the two enemy players opposing us, however, and by the 10 minute mark we were both running dangerously low on hit points.

We’d each spent some of our starting gold on a healing salve—a one-use, cost-ineffective way of restoring health that can be cast on your own character or on an ally. Having not bothered to look at each other’s inventories, neither of us knew that we’d both bought one.

There was a brief moment of calm. Our creep line had advanced into the firing range of the first enemy tower, and it was too early in the

game to have a go at knocking the defensive structure down. We backed off and waited a little way north of the river that bisects the map. I compared my health bar to my friend’s and decided that he needed to stay in the lane longer

AI-controlled creeps from one side’s base to the other. Each lane is dotted with defensive towers, and cracking these defenses to expose the enemy “ancient” forms the basis of Dota’s strategic take on tug-of-war.

Bristleback and Tusk are both melee heroes, which meant we needed to get close to the creep line to score last hits—killing blows that dispatch enemy units for gold and experience. In doing so, we made ourselves vulnerable to ranged fire

“Holy ****, it’s Viper!”Gyrocopter

casually

references Top

Gun while laning

alongside an

acid-spewing

fl ying snake.

“Echo...

slam?”earthshaker’s

enthusiasm for

yelling the name

of his own ultimate

is diminished if used at

the wrong time.

Tinker shares a voice actor

and a whole load of science

with Half-Life’s Dr Kleiner.

“I’ve clamped the manifold

parameters to...CY

base and LG orbifold...

Hilbert inclusive.”

noveMBeR 2013 57

Did...did we just salve

each other?

than I did. I could run back to base, if I had to, and get my health back there at the expense of time and experience points. I pushed the hotkey for my healing salve and pointed it at Bristleback, giving up my gold to keep him in the game.

A few hundred real-world miles away, in the same instant, my friend compared his health bar to mine and decided that I needed to stay in the lane longer than he did. He hotkeyed his healing salve and pointed it at me, giving up his gold to keep me in the game. Green swirls of regenerative energy sprang from both of our characters in unison.

We laughed. “Did... did we just salve each

other?”“Er, yeah. I think we did.”“That isn’t weird, is it?”“I think it’s fine. Nobody saw.”If you’re looking for a reason to

commit time to Dota 2—if you’re actually reading this review for advice and a critical opinion, rather than to see what score I’m going to give the most popular game on Steam—then, first up, thanks for being here. Second, I want you to consider what it means when two grown men accidentally lather each other in regenerative goop. It’s gaming’s equivalent of holding a door open for somebody who is already reaching to hold the door open for you: a synchronicity of kindness that speaks to a deeper shared understanding of the situation both people are in. Dota is a game where you can say the words, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” and be reliably assured that the person on the other end of

your VoIP connection actually is. It might have the systems and bearing of a video game, but Dota shares the social impetus of a sport. Its single environment isn’t a map, it’s a stadium.

Ancient historyDota 2 is a remake of Defense of the Ancients, the Warcraft III mod that laid out the principles of leveling up a hero, pushing lanes and knocking down towers. Many of the games that followed the original DotA sanded down its rougher edges in pursuit of new audiences or alternative business models. That’s not the case here: this is the lane-pushing game in its original, most intricate form. Getting into Dota 2 means committing time to learning a game whose mechanics have been designed with complexity rather than accessibility in mind.

A suite of single-player tutorials explains the basics, and Valve has done well here to introduce some of Dota’s more esoteric concepts alongside the familiar business of attacking enemies, using items, and deploying skills. These tutorials are followed up with a series of bot matches using a limited pool of heroes that eventually opens up into full online play. It’s inevitable, however, that new players will feel unprepared for their first proper match: like any sport, experience is a better teacher than time spent practicing in isolation.

It helps that it’s fun. Hero abilities are impactful and satisfying to land, and scale well with the ability level of the player wielding them. Lion’s Finger of Death power, for example,

only requires you to click on the right enemy to see them obliterated by a searing bolt of lightning, and the satisfaction you receive from its use in your first hours with the game will be matched later when you land your first long-ranged Sacred Arrow with Mirana, a skillshot that scales in power the further it travels. As you become familiar with the surface details of the game you’ll naturally start to understand its deeper complexities: the knowledge of turn rates, attack animations, and stat scaling that become important at higher levels of play.

There’s something tremendously rewarding about learning to play Dota. Part of this is the vast amount of information you’re asked to absorb: the abilities, items, rules, situations, and solutions that constitute its secret language. Then there’s the application of that knowledge, the clutch choices that determine the outcome of skirmishes, sieges, and ultimately the game. Victory feels like a genuine accomplishment in a way that it doesn’t in the vast majority of other games, because of the sheer number of variables in play: the best matches are like passing through a storm of chance and chaos with four other people and emerging from the other side clutching a win—and, if you’re lucky, a couple of new hats.

Failure is an optionThen there’s losing. Defeat is a necessary part of the equation—without it, those victories mean nothing—but it stings, and for every energizing loss that teaches you something, there’s a drag-out, mood-crushing face-stomp. Just as winning becomes more meaningful when you feel like the game is testing you personally, so defeat will sometimes feel like having all of your personal failures writ large.

Certainly, there will be people who make it their business to tell you that you suck. I sometimes feel like the hostility of the Dota community is overstated, but there’s no denying that abuse occurs with regularity. A mixture of competitive pressure, language barriers, and anonymity create an environment where immature people feel like it’s acceptable to say terrible things to one another. This isn’t unique to Dota, but it’s part of the experience and it’s completely understandable if it puts you off playing the game.

revIeW

Pro Bono

Professional Dota 2 games to cut your teeth on

The International Western Qualifier FinalsGame 4 The battle for the final secure spot for a western

team at The International was grueling. This final tangle

between Mousesports and Quantic (then DD.Dota) runs

long and ends on an amazing teamfight.

www.bit.ly/dota2-1

The Defense 4 Grand FinalsGame 3 na’vi are community darlings for a number of

reasons, one of which is their capacity to sometimes do

something very silly. Their bizarre hero selection in this match

baffles both the commentary team and their opponents.

www.bit.ly/dota2-2

Mousesports vs QuAntIc GAMInG nA’vI vs KAIpI

58 noveMBeR 2013

You’re getting raxed, pal.

Only 326 wins and 800-plushours played? Noob.

An Ancient unexploded.

And exploded.

Invoker is super hard toplay, but powerful.

Puck, Kunkka, and Viper:an irritating combination.

Dazzle! Daffle! Dabble!Darrell. Dazzle.

noveMBeR 2013 59

Outworld Devourer likesputting people in space prison.

Lich here, also known as“best hero.”

Naga Siren will alwaysmess up at least one ulti.

The eSports interfaceis seriously slick.

Pushing towers isn’t alwaysa good idea.

My wooshy halo effectis better than yours.

Dota 2’s community isn’tso scary, really.

60 noveMBeR 2013

revIeW

90A deep and rewarding

competitive game that

becomes something

special when taken on in

the company of others.◆ Expect to pay Free-to-play with purchasable cosmetic items ◆ Release out now ◆ Developer valve

◆ Publisher valve◆ Multiplayer Up to 10 players, with bot support ◆ Link www.dota2.com

The point, though, is that this negativity stems from the same forces that make the game so special: passion, expertise, and personal investment.

Valve has implemented systems to help police player behavior, but it’s an area where it could do more. You can commend or report players for a variety of respectively positive and negative behavioral traits—friendliness and leadership on one side, text abuse and intentional griefing on the other.

Commendations are listed on player profile pages as badges of honor, whereas receiving a sufficient amount of reports in a given period can result in players having their chat rights shut off for a variable amount of time. The effectiveness of the system is hard to judge, but it clearly hasn’t been internalized by the community in the way that League of Legends’ player tribunals have. It’s common to see players—often, the worst offenders—demanding that people be reported for simply having a bad game, while requesting commendations for themselves because they scored a lot of kills.

Defense of the in-jokesThere’s still a tremendous amount of good to the Dota community. You will, from time to time, be matched with great people or find yourself taking on enemies who have a sense of humor. Then there’s the culture that surrounds the game—the endless in-jokes, the top-quality support for the professional scene, and the depth of discussion surrounding mechanics and strategy. Community membership might not be something you download with the game client, but it’s part of the package: if you’re considering devoting a serious amount of time to Dota, these benefits have to be held in balance against the odd tangle with an abusive player.

Valve has matched the community’s enthusiasm for its roster of characters with designs that match its superlative work on Team Fortress 2. Every hero has a distinctive silhouette and color scheme, and absurdly in-depth writing and voice-acting peppers each match with personality and

humor. “We should spar when this is over,” mutters Tusk, should he happen to wander into a lane alongside Bristleback. There’s no reason for these bits of throwaway dialog to be in the game except that they’re fun and they compound the feeling that no two games will ever be quite the same. I’ve played more than 750 matches, and I’m still hearing voice lines that I’ve never heard before. I can’t think of another multiplayer game where that’s the case.

The community is intimately involved in the game’s microtransaction system, too. Creators populate the store with cosmetic items that enable you to tweak the designs of your favorite characters, either by buying them directly, buying a key for a random loot chest, or by earning them through a post-match drop. The entirety of Dota 2’s payment structure is bound up in cosmetics, and ways to more deeply involve yourself in the eSports scene: there are no heroes to buy and no premium account upgrades that affect the balance of play. Dota 2 is possibly the only competitive free-to-play game that is totally uncompromised by its business model.

Valve also deserves credit for Dota 2’s standout eSports support. Matches can be streamed in the client, enabling you to spectate directly alongside in-game commentators. You can earn item rewards by watching your favorite teams, and if you link your Steam

and Twitch accounts, you can do this while watching matches in a browser. And then there’s the Compendium—a kind of betting book for the International tournament. It supports a pro-player collecting minigame that combines professional gaming with the mentality behind baseball trading cards, in a way that is so obviously clever that it’s astonishing that it took this long to be invented. The notion that someone entirely new to eSports might receive a player card after a match, decide to look them up and become a fan is as exciting as it is eminently plausible.

Well tunedDota 2 is in a strong place right now. It’s rewarding and sociable like few other games, and despite its vast popularity it still feels like a secret waiting to be discovered. The next few months will be crucial: it’s currently the best expression of Valve’s progressive attitude toward players, and if it can continue on that track it describes a future for online gaming that is far more hopeful than the one we’re used to.

That’s the big picture, however. For me, Dota 2 will continue to be about the friends that I learned to play it with, the ones I’ve made through playing it, and that ceaseless, pointless singing.

Dota 2 is in a strong place right now.

Arts and crafts

DeathripperThe fi rst Dota item

sponsored by another

game. Hopefully not

a sign of things to

come.

Spoils of the Bone RuinsThe weakest item

sets change a hero’s

profi le in ways that

make you say “Wuh?”

Master of Beast and Bole

nothing says “nature

wizard” like stuffi ng a

crow onto the end of

a long stick.

Armored Exoskeleton

The best item sets

change a hero’s

profi le to draw out

their backstory.

Captain Bamboo

Just look at this

little guy! I don’t

need to justify

myself to you.

QUESTIONABLE BRILLIANT

The best and worst of the Dota 2 store

noveMBeR 2013 61

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REVIEW

Creatures have guns of their own.

PIXELATED PERMADEATHWith few pixels and fewer health packs, TELEGLITCH: DIE MORE EDITION creates a world of horror by Craig Owens

Teleglitch has just made me pray—no, beg—for canned meat, the most covetable item in a harsh, hateful world. Canned

meat restores 10 hit points, you see, even beyond your initial limit of 100. That’s not even the best part.

The best part is, once I’ve eaten the delicious, health boosting innards, I can use the discarded can to make plate, which in turn can form armor. Armor that might just help me survive long enough to make it to the next tasty can.

This is what the roguelike top-down shooter Teleglitch: Die More Edition has reduced me too, a pitiful bundle of pixels pathetically in search of my next hit of canned protein. I’m not sure that the developers, Test3 Projects, intended

an item so innocuous to be quite so lusted over, but it nonetheless forms part of an immaculately balanced set of potential upgrades and items built from the junk you find lying around the Militech research facility. Teleglitch might be a shooter, but it’s also an arms race. The real core of the game is keeping yourself well enough equipped and upgraded to hold off the next wave of its increasingly tough, freakish foes as you try to reach the teleporter that will grant you access to the next section of the complex.

Your enemies are fought off with crisp, taut gunplay in which ammo conservation is key. As well as being astonishingly, horribly deadly en masse, these creatures like to avenge generations of their NPC brethren by circle strafing you, just daring you to send three rounds of shotgun pellets into the nearby wall. Unless, of course, these are creatures that have guns of their own, in which case you’ve suddenly rounded a corner and strolled right into a high-stakes, Hotline Miami-style shootout with no warning.

Old familiarIt’s tough, but reliably so. Teleglitch, even in this Die More Edition (which lets you randomize your starting loadout) rejects the slot-machine nature of so many roguelikes. That very Spelunkian pleasure of nabbing a jetpack, compass, and shotgun before you’ve even left the mines has no equivalent in Teleglitch. Test3’s algorithm dispenses the occasional treat, certainly, but the randomization here is more a means of removing level familiarity from the equation than a way of making each run a distinct experience. With that in mind, once you’ve worked

out an optimum set of survival tactics (Build a nailgun! Hoard canned meat!) Teleglitch can occasionally become fatiguing—a grueling series of battles through a facility that’s not quite fresh enough each time.

Yet what an atmospheric facility it is. Low-fi, it can look a little drab in screenshots, but clever distortion effects alongside a tracking, zooming camera and a dynamic line-of-sight system lend a queasy, hypnotic motion to the game. The audio, meanwhile, has been pared down to the sound of your footsteps and the snarl of your foes, occasionally offset by droning, whirring machinery. It’s an odd blend, this mixture of highly abstract visuals and entirely diegetic sounds, but a surprisingly engrossing one. There’s also some richly imagined science-fiction behind it all, too—though pausing to read the many, many terminals sprinkled throughout the levels does tend to interrupt the twitch shooter rhythms of the game.

There’s a purity to Teleglitch: Die More Edition, which works hard to conjure an oppressive atmosphere around a brutal, punishing core. In that sense, it’s a more traditional roguelike than many of the genre-hybrids we’ve seen in these post-Spelunky years, even if its shooter-DNA means we should undoubtedly count it among their number. But then, why worry about classifications when you could be playing a brutal, randomized chunk of top-down Doom?

◆ Expect to pay $13 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer Test3 Projects ◆ Publisher Paradox Interactive

◆ Multiplayer None ◆ Link www.diemore.teleglitch.com

85Beneath the lo-fi visuals and simple animation is a sophisticated, thrilling, and occasionally brutal shooter.

What is it?A top-down roguelike shooter

with more than a dash of survival horror.

Influenced by Alien Breed, Rogue

Play it onDual core CPU, 1GB RAM,

GeForce 6600

Alternatively FTL, 89%

Copy protectionSteam

Need to know

Enemy mine

The things that want to kill you at Militech

Horrible Spider ThingOh, God what is this? Whatever it is, it keeps killing me. I don’t know what it’s called or the best way to defeat it. Please send help. Thank you.

GuardsShades of System Shock 2 here, as these poor saps have had their cybernetic implants hijacked by the facility’s rogue AI, meaning they’re forced to do its bidding with their body completely beyond their control. Also, they have guns.

MutantsYour classic horrifi c military experiment gone wrong, mutants are terrible scuttly circle-strafi ng killers who like to hunt in packs.

ZombieIn Teleglitch’s hellish future, zombies are used as cheap labor: reanimated corpses brought back in order to perform menial tasks. Apparently, the ones you meet have gone on strike.

64 NOVEMBER 2013

This is where you always start. Frankly, it looks quite cozy and safe.

Ammo conservation is crucial, yet your melee attack is next to useless.

Die More Edition occasionally lets you pick your next location. They’re all horrible.

A pzfaust one-shot rocket launcher is well worth constructing.

These garden-filled labs are as pretty as Teleglitch gets.

That black, inky stuff is the Teleglitch. It melts your brain.

NOVEMBER 2013 65

What is it?A top-down shooter set in the

Halo universe.

Influenced bySmash TV, Geometry Wars

Play it onWindows 8, Microsoft Surface,

Windows Phone 8

Alternatively Lara Croft & The

Guardian of Light, 87%

Copy protectionWindows 8

Need to know Windows 8 is a confused thing, so it’s no surprise to find that Halo: Spartan

Assault is, too. Like the operating system to which it’s tied, it’s been designed to work on smartphones, tablets, and PCs, but doesn’t entirely convince on any of them—jack of all trades and Master Chief of none.

PC users are spared having to use the touchscreen version’s virtual controls, but it’s impossible to escape the feeling that you’re playing a top-down twin-stick shooter that doesn’t support twin sticks. Controller support is promised, but its absence is keenly felt here, especially when you hop in one of Spartan Assault’s vehicles and find it can only move in eight directions.

This is recognizably Halo, at least, even if it’s not quite the return of Master Chief forecast by students of the Steam database. Even from high up in the sky you can tell those are

Covenant enemies running around down there, both in look and feel: Grunts happily waddle into your line of fire, while Elites smartly fall back behind cover when you deplete their shields. You do the same, naturally, and there’s a familiar rhythm to combat as you flank round to open up enemies behind cover, retreating only when a pulsating sound effect and throbbing red energy bar alert you to your diminished defenses.

The story tells of two Spartans—one of each gender, because there’s no safer moment to introduce Halo’s first female protagonist than when she’s wearing a helmet and viewed through a lens placed a couple of hundred feet in the sky—seeking to fend off the latest Covenant advance across 25 protect, escort, and destroy missions. It’s told in flashback through a UNSC training simulation, which gives handy narrative justification to the scoring

system. At each level’s close, your score is boosted by medals awarded for killing enemies within a certain time or without taking damage, and you’re given a gold, silver, or bronze badge. And it’s here you realize once and for all that you’re playing a mobile game on your PC.

The only way to change the loadout you take into each level is by spending currency. You’re given three choices for each weapon and special ability—a forcefield, for instance, within which your shield speedily replenishes. One of these costs XP earned in game; the other two can only be purchased with Credits, available only through real-money purchase in bundles starting at $3 and going all the way up to $40. Skulls, which change the flow of the game—boosting enemies, for instance, or having your shield deplete when you fire—increase the XP gained from each mission, but the best toys are behind a paywall. It’s an unwelcome free-to-play system in a game you’ve already paid for, a mechanical construct that belongs on a smartphone screen, not a high-end PC. Halo: Spartan Assault is, in that sense, the quintessential Windows 8 game.

◆ Expect to pay $7 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer Vanguard Games ◆ Publisher Microsoft Studios

◆ Multiplayer None ◆ Link www.vanguardgames.net/halo-spartan-assault

A smart top-down reimagining of the Halo experience, let down by mobile game monetization.

58

CHIEF CONCERNSHALO: SPARTAN ASSAULT is as muddled as its host operating system by Nathan Brown

Everyone loves an escort mission!Wait, they don’t? Ah.

Many levels involve simply survivingwhile a timer ticks down.

Turrets make short work of Wraiths. Grenades are even better.

Foreground scenery gets inthe way of the action.

Grunts are (literal) cannon fodder.

66 NOVEMBER 2013

Ends 10/7/13. WHEN YOU TEXT SAINTSROW TO 727272, YOU’LL GET UP TO 2 MESSAGES. 2 messages a week. Message & data rates may apply. Text STOP to cancel, HELP for help. 1 code per transaction. Code good at the box only. Card required. Charges apply for additional days. Can’t be combined with other offers. Subject to additional terms. Void where prohibited. For full promo code terms, go to: http://www.redbox.com/gamepromocodeterms

© 2013 by Deep Silver. Deep Silver is a division of Koch Media GmbH, Gewerbegebiet 1, 6604 Höfen, Austria. Developed by Deep Silver Volition, LLC. Deep Silver, Saints Row 4, Deep Silver Volition, LLC. and their respective logos are trademarks of Koch Media GmbH. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. KINECT, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft. “PlayStation”, the “PS” Family logo and “PS3” are registered trademarks and the PlayStation Network logo is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. ESRB rating icons are registered trademarks of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and may not be used without permission of the ESA. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners.

What is it?A would-be Splinter Cell with

fangs, starring fl edgling vampire Eric Bane.

Influenced byVampire: The Masquerade:

Bloodlines

Play it onDual Core, 2GB RAM,

512MB 3D card

AlternativelyVampire: The Masquerade:

Bloodlines, 75%

Copy protectionSteam

Need to know Before Dark even begins, it spends a couple of hours staring into the mirror and

hating its wannabe-vampire self for still having a reflection. It’s That Guy at the goth club, desperate to fit in, its clothes and makeup a copied uniform rather than a personal statement. Just for starters, its protagonist is called “Eric Bane.” Please let that sink in.

Specifically, what Dark wants to be is Vampire: Bloodlines—a stylish, vicious trip into the night to both join and face off against the undead, simultaneously reveling in and complaining about living the alternate nine-to-five. Dark’s got the clubs, the electronic music, the neck-biting, and the endearingly ludicrous powers, such as jumping effortlessly between shadows. Unfortunately, where Bloodlines was an amazing, sprawling RPG, Dark’s ambitions are limited to being an endless

stealth level so scrappily designed that the first stage has you hide from enemies behind glass. Almost as silly is the fact that this is a stealth game called Dark where the dark plays no part in avoiding detection.

Instead, trial and error wins out. As Eric Bane—snicker—you technically have some handy powers, such as regenerating from bullet wounds, seeing through walls, and creating distractions on the fly. His curse isn’t a thirst for human blood, but game controls that rip every scrap of enjoyment out of using them, and enemy placement that makes getting through areas more a question of dumb luck than effortlessly executing a clever plan. Even vampire abilities don’t help much. The Shadow Leap power, a pale imitation of Dishonored’s Blink, is fiddly to target, rarely allows for shortcuts that would actually help, and is infuriatingly noisy until

powered up. With this many enemies around, whooshing all over the place is all too often just a way to get into trouble faster. Guns cut down poor Eric Bane—snicker—in seconds, keeping him a cover-skulker even after using skillpoints to unlock his advanced powers.

Part of the problem is that the levels are designed more like mazes than actual locations, with some individually interesting areas trapped in a sea of endless boxes and locked off paths. On Easy mode, unlimited saves make navigating around them easy, if cheesy—especially when enemies are hilariously susceptible to one-hit kill punches from around a conveniently boxy corner. On harder difficulties, you’re reliant on abusing AI glitches to save time and avoid repetition, as checkpoints are spaced too far apart.

Even when things go well, the clunky controls and uninteresting story linking each glorified box factory together make being a terror of the night about as tempting as being a night security guard. Eric Bane—snicker—needs blood to avoid a literal fate worse than death. No amount of it can keep his game from being anaemic.

◆ Expect to pay $40 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer Kalypso Media ◆ Publisher Realmforge Studios

◆ Multiplayer None ◆ Link www.getintothedark.com

A work of sulky blandness that does itself no favors by latching onto better games and cooler vampires.

43

SUICIDE GHOULSIn a dark, dark warehouse next to some dark, dark boxes, you’ll find DARK by Richard Cobbett

Not a jungle, a skyscraper. Don’t ask. Really, don’t.

It’s like being shot atby an angry armchair.

No wonder vampires are so grouchy ifthis is how they see the world.

Sanctuary, where DJing means endlessly playing the same CD on a loop.

Bane won’t kill civilians, but security guards doing their job? Sure.

Bane is voiced by Geralt from The Witcher.

Same voice. More confused.

68 NOVEMBER 2013

STUPID GOODSteelport gets simulated and even sillier in the superb SAINTS ROW IV by Rich McCormick

This is the only game I’ve ever had to pause because I was laughing too much to play. I want to tell you about the

exact section that caused me to crack up. I want to sit you down, do the voices, and perform a poor recreation of the whole thing. And I want you to know about the other hundred-odd moments that physically contorted my real-life face into real-life grins or my real-life mouth into real-life laughs.

I won’t tell you about all of them because I’d spoil them. But I want you to know because they’re so joyful, so playful, that they turn this third sequel to an average Grand Theft Auto clone into one of the most fun games I’ve ever played.

Like Saints Row the Third, Saints Row IV is set in the city of Steelport. Except it isn’t. The game starts with an alien attack on Earth, with you as president of the United States. Except technically it doesn’t do that, either—the game actually starts once you’ve infiltrated a terrorist base to

find a nuclear missile and clambered up the side of it mid-flight, yanking vital bits of wiring out as Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” blares. The missile explodes, you fall to earth, and manage to crash through the ceiling of the oval office. Congratulations, you’re president!

Facial profilingI’m including this precise description because it sets SRIV’s tone early, and better than I could with words like “crazy” or “anarchic” or “what?!” This tone continues throughout the subsequent alien invasion, throughout your incarceration in a Matrix-esque simulation of Steelport (see why it technically isn’t the same place?), and all the way through the 10-hour campaign and over 20 hours of side missions.

It’s even present in the character creation screen. Long ago, PC Gamer developed the concept of “maximum face”: mutants produced by pushing every slider to full. The overweight, hollow-cheeked, elf-eared weirdo you see in these

screenshots is a product of that. For the first three hours, simply seeing his face kicked me into fits of giggles.

I played my hero for laughs, dressing him in a towel, then in Lara Croft hotpants, then as a giant foam hotdog. But you’re also free to play him straight, a man in a suit amid the madness of an imperfect simulation of an already-mad city. Or you’re free to play as a her. Or as a him with a her voice, or a her with a him voice, or a her with a her voice pitch-shifted, or even as a him with Nolan North’s voice. Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, you can play as a small white hovering toilet.

I created a monster, with an aging wrestler’s body, a pencil moustache, and giant buggly eyes, and gave him a cockney voice pitch-shifted to 60 percent. He talked like Jason Statham huffing a birthday-partyful of helium balloons and loomed out of the screen like a child’s drawing of a nightmare. By the end of the game, I loved him. I’m still not quite sure how that happened.

But I think I’ve got an idea. SRIV is surprisingly inclusive. It trades in ridiculousness, but unlike its raison d’etre Grand Theft Auto, it’s never sneering or cruel. Where GTA lauds movies and music as cultural touchstones, SRIV takes on games. Mass Effect is one of its most visible targets. Punching out of the alien- run Steelport simulation for the first time, I got my own spaceship, with cabins for a crew I’d later recruit by rescuing them from the Matrix.

Press E on a crewmate and you can talk to them. Press R and you’ll “romance” them. There’s no convoluted conversational minefield to unlock fade-to-black humping here, though: almost all of your friends—male, female, or robot—will immediately consent. It’s a pastiche of BioWare’s RPG sex vending machines—feed enough

What is it?Fourth in the open-world

GTA-clone series, now even sillier in tone.

Influenced byGrand Theft Auto

Play it oni5 CPU, GeForce 560 Ti,

4GB RAM

AlternativelySleeping Dogs, 74%

Copy protectionSteam

Need to know

REVIEW

A little on the side

Rating Saints Row IV’s side missions

6 Cat & mouse...chase your co-op

partner through the city.

Rating

5 Death tag Fight your co-op

partner, and then...

Rating

4 Flashpoint Defeat enemies, then a

boring boss.

Rating

7 Fraud Fall into oncoming

traffi c for money.

Rating

3 Mech Dress up in power armor

and destroy stuff.

Rating

2 Security deletion Kill tough targets. Feel

more secure.

Rating

1 TowerClimb to the top of the

tower. Claim it for your side.

Rating

326

75

4

1

70 NOVEMBER 2013

Climb vast towersfor rewards.

Car + flamethrowers = fun.

SRIV’s version of EDIis a bit low budget.

A heady aroma,to be sure.

Money will upgrade gunsto silly degrees.

Try not to makeeye contact.

Never insult a man’sbanana hammock.

Majestic.

For Christ’s sake don’tlet him touch you.

They are, honestly,meant to look like that.

NOVEMBER 2013 71

He’s died because hesaw up my skirt.

I’d play a game built aroundSRIV’s running melee attacks.

Perhaps more unsettlingthan my character.

Smash these glowing orbthings for collectables.

I’d follow him into battleanywhere.

Hitting taxis with tentaclebats: recommended.

Helicopters, tanks, UFOs,jets, tricycles: all usable.

Certain grenades sap yourpowers for a few seconds.

Good job lookingnonchalant, buddy.

Mute alien psychopath catProfessor Genki is back.

72 NOVEMBER 2013

Horror show

Some of Saints Row IV’s more elegant outfits

UNSETTLING!

ROBO SCARY!

CREEPY!EVIL!

LEAVE ME ALONE!

OFF PUTTING!

BEEN SICK!

GOD NO!

REVIEW

90It might not have the sheen of Grand Theft Auto, but Saints Row IV is both gloriously stupid and stupidly good.

◆ Expect to pay $50 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer Volition ◆ Publisher Deep Silver

◆ Multiplayer 2 player coop campaign ◆ Link www.saintsrow.com

in and collect your hump from the slot below—but also indicative of SRIV’s desire to simplify.

That desire is the best thing about the game. Options unfurl as you play. Steelport is a city full of cars, and, as in GTA, any of them can be hijacked and driven. They felt good. Half an hour into the game, I unlocked nitrous boosts—for all vehicles. My already-quick cars went faster. They felt great. An hour into the game, I unlocked super jumps. Holding the spacebar would power-up a leap to get me halfway up a tower. It felt fantastic.

Two hours in, I could run faster than cars. It felt incredible. Three hours in, I’d unlocked a glide move that meant I could float between objectives like a disgusting flying squirrel. It felt amazing.

Ten hours in and I barely needed to touch the ground. My favorite way to get to a story mission marker was to sprint to Steelport’s central island, bound up the tallest skyscraper while charging an upgraded tier three superjump, then leap off and glide toward my objective. Fifty stories above it, I’d turn myself into a human missile through an upgradeable ability and slam to the ground with a powerful shockwave. Pedestrians and cars would careen away from my impact point, and I’d saunter the few feet to my destination in luminous pink high heels. It felt fabulous.

Life, upgradedThere’s a full customization system for all the cars, in addition to pilotable alien hoverbikes, UFOs, and attack helicopters. Any minor inconvenience I had, I found stripped away by an upgrade. Glowing blue collectibles hidden on buildings and bridges around the city let me upgrade my movement capabilities, as well as a suite of four powers that include ice blasts and telekinesis. I found myself entering mini-trances and collecting these blue orbs for 10-15 minutes at a time, reveling in the joy of superpowered movement and the little yelp my character produced whenever he collected one.

Simulated Steelport’s shops can be hacked to provide new clothes and weapon options, as well as turning the local populace to the Saints’ side. Towers can be climbed and turned

from angry alien red to calm blue. These missions are structured further by your crew, who’ll ask you to perform certain tasks to “destabilize” the simulation.

Some of these missions are weak: clearing waves of foes gets tiresome when they take too long to turn up, and the Audiosurf minigame goes on too long. Others are inspired, particularly the destruction jobs where you’re given the keys to a tank, and the insurance fraud schemes, where you purposefully ragdoll yourself into traffic to earn extra points.

But it’s the story missions that are the strongest, using characters from the three previous games to make them bombastic, funny, and imaginative. The simulated setting lets SRIV play wherever it wants to, the standout for me being a base infiltration in the Metal Gear Solid vein that forced me to shoot out every light source in the facility—and the line “that light had a family.” The setting also enables the game to cast its staggering level of violence in an acceptable light. Enemies, aliens, pedestrians: all of them simulations to be suplexed onto the concrete by one of your ludicrous melee moves and left to fade back into imaginary numbers.

It’s not the most technically proficient game. Five or six times, cutscenes failed to trigger because I was mid-animation when they were due to start, clipping was a constant problem, and enemies occasionally got stuck in the scenery.

Fortunately, it’s not broken: Steelport with all its moving parts was designed to push consoles at the end of their lifespan, but my i5 CPU and two-year-old graphics card ran it on high without trouble. Graphics options that included v-sync and anti-aliasing—but no field of view—were more than enough to keep me happy in a city that never chugged as I glided through its skies.

Saints Row IV is a game that’s comfortable with itself. It’s solved how to tie callous violence to a character you actually want to inhabit by means of a narrative device, it’s solved fiddly movement by adding an intoxicating set of movement mechanics, and it’s solved the gross, exploitative tone of previous sequels through genuine affection for its cast and equality of characters—man, woman, or toilet, all can wield a giant purple dildo bat. It’s a vast, mechanically joyful game, the result of chucking all the fun and freedom of gaming into the same city.

Saints Row was born of Grand Theft Auto, but although both feature open cities and freeform violence, they’ve diverged. GTA is desperate to be a film, to be satire, to be an experience. Saints Row IV wants to be a game, and by showing its heartfelt love for the medium, it’s become something wonderful.

Man, woman, or toilet—all can wield a giant purple dildo bat.

NOVEMBER 2013 73

74 november 2013

School DayS

that affect your students in some capacity, like the Hammer of Enlightenment, automatically consume a turn when performed. Things like electing a teacher’s pet (produces unique bonuses), and drinking coffee, do not. Between classes, you retreat to the break room and decide whether you want to improve your class’s overall grades, rest, or gain further XP.

At night, you can retire home to ponder much of the same priorities again. Your home, though initially barren, can be upgraded over the course of your teaching career.

Teacher Story is entertaining, off-kilter, deeper than the brightly-colored sprites of the game may intimate and unburdened with overbearing micro-transactions (they just want to help you speed things up).

God, this sucks. Frank keeps snickering, Sophie won’t stay awake, and that new kid is

impressively flatulent. If they don’t pass this class, I’ll be trapped with them all summer. They need to pass. I need them to pass. Teacher Story is arguably the most oddball take on browser-based tactical RPGs yet.

As the rakish, mustachioed lecturer, it is your job to impart knowledge to the next generation. You must juggle your students’ various idiosyncrasies, battle boredom (which serves as armor) and stupidity (which represents their health), and maintain self-control (which is your health).

Teacher Story, which is free-to-play, functions much like your traditional turn-based RPG, except you only get a finite number of turns. Each round, you have the opportunity to perform two kinds of action. Those

Teacher STory shows that education can be class war by Cassandra Khaw

75

oRDaINaRy

Oblivious yellow bullets form grazing patterns, aimed orange ones force you to move, and pink tracking missiles are your new worst enemy.

Your location changes the form of the level in ways that doesn’t happen in other BIT.TRIPs. It’s harder, and there’s little in the way of eureka satisfaction. Most deaths on the minutes-long, uncheckpointed levels are followed by a desire to go do something else for 10 minutes.

FATE has all the touchstones of a BIT.TRIP game—the hunt for flawless execution, the grueling score optimization. It serves up the same boiled-down punishing appeal. But it doesn’t gel so well—the soundtrack is weaker than I’ve come to expect, and the levels called Frustration and Anger are either a sheepish apology, or a statement of intent, proudly achieved.

BIT.TRIP games begin as matters of overwhelming response and over-stretched

reflex. Over subsequent replays, the unchanging levels and the unspoken visual language turn them into tests of rehearsal and instinct. They’re also games that have music in their soul—games where everything adds to the music, and makes you feel like you’re playing a whimsical spoof of a 22nd century musical instrument.

On those terms, FATE is a departure. Commander Video is attached to a fixed line. He has the ability to move backwards and forwards, along its slopes and spikes. For a game that uses the language of determinism, it’s one of the freest BIT.TRIPs. Twin-stick firing in any direction? It’s a positive unshackling.

That gives the enemies a chance to be crueler: while the waves are fixed, the bullets have developed AI.

BIT.TrIP FaTe is the penultimate wedge of the saga, and falls slightly flat by Jon Blyth

69

◆ Expect to pay Free-to-play ◆ Release out now ◆ Developer motion Twin

◆ Publisher In-house ◆ Multiplayer none ◆ Link www.teacher-story.com

That colleague of yours? He rides a Harley.

I will beat this fact into you.

◆ Expect to pay $10 ◆ Release out now ◆ Developer Gaijin Games

◆ Publisher In-house ◆ Multiplayer none ◆ Link www.bittripgame.com

Guest star Meat Boy’s laser destroysenemy bullets, squelches.

You can survive most yellow blitzes by finding a safe spot.

review

That’s why our Progressive Mobile App lets you start a quote just by snapping a picture of your license. Or, if you scan your car’s VIN, it’ll automatically populate your year, make and model into your quote! Making it easier to get a quote. Now that’s Progressive. GG. ©2013 Progressive Casualty Ins. Co. and affi liates. Mobile quoting and/or

picture and/or VIN not available in all states. 12D00444.MG (08/13)

LEARN MORE. SCAN HERE.

REVIEW

Go racing around maps

in the guise of a dragon.

DIVINE INTERVENTIONSWarlocks, wedlock, and G-LOC await in DIVINITY: DRAGON COMMANDER by Tim Stone

Seeing you sitting there in that anti-fracking T-shirt and German pickelhaube, with that iguana on your shoulder, mischievous

twinkle in your eye, and bookcase stacked with strategy curios like Hostile Waters, Rise of Legends, and King’s Bounty, I’m mostly sure that you’ll to enjoy Dragon Commander.

You’re just the kind of novelty-hungry, socially-savvy, lizard-cuddling connoisseur to appreciate Larian’s splendidly eccentric mix of RTS, RPG, TBS, and shmup. You’re going to love the fact that you can abandon battle orchestration at any point and go racing around maps in the guise of a giant fireball-gobbing dragon. You’re going to nod approvingly on learning that those battles are the spontaneous results of army collisions on a Total War-reminiscent strat map.

Faced by your first popularity-impacting policy decision, steam-punk R&D choice, or conversation with a mercurial mercenary general, I picture you grinning like a split tennis ball. On realizing that you can

wed a lipstick-daubed skeleton princess, I’d be surprised if you didn’t emit at least one involuntary cackle.

But I think I also know you well enough to predict disappointment with the RTS basics. Beneath DDC’s magnificently misshapen scales is a mediocre SupCom supplicant. With no fog-of-war, negligible terrain significance, a single resource, and units that scuttle, soar, sail, and slaughter in much the same way units have been doing for decades, skirmishes feel deeply conventional until you tap the R key and morph into a mythological A-10.

Click and dragonOn the battlefield, blob tactics usually get the job done. Pump out a motley mob of gamboling Grenadiers, trundling Hunters, and gaseous Warlocks, direct them towards the nearest resource or base site (buildings can only be placed in prescribed plots) and, assuming your timing is right, your aggro-amoeba is big enough, and the impressive AI hasn’t outproduced you, you should make progress. A spot of hands-on

dragonplay can turn a tight battle, but may lead to potentially disastrous production lulls too. While simple “go here” unit orders can be issued when aloft, sky-lizards can’t commission cannon fodder or erect new factories or recruitment centers.

What jets Dragon Commander into the realm of games-you’ll-remember-10-years-from-now isn’t the nitty gritty of battles, but the plethora of characters and choices that swirl around them. The lulls between bloodbaths teem with decisions, few of which are trivial or dull. That conscription policy you nodded through a couple of turns ago? It wasn’t popular with the elves so, during the coming engagement in the elven province of Romentell, your pop cap will be far from ideal. You built a tavern in Thornburg on Turn 3 rather than a goldmine? That means you’ve now got a hand full of useful mercenary cards, but can’t afford to employ Edmund or Scarlett to lead your hirelings in the unanticipated Bhargandium battle.

Larian understands that playing an RTS doesn’t have to mean spending days as That Incorporeal Dude Who Choreographs Combat and Clicks Through Cutscenes. Jawing with generals, ambassadors, and aides in the handsome interior of your mothership, the Raven, instills a palpable sense of self. You’re a bastard prince with dragon blood singing in his veins. Surrounded by quirk and color, and free to campaign in whatever fashion you choose, it’s easy to overlook DDC’s lack of tactical temerity.

◆ Expect to pay $40 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer Larian Studios ◆ Publisher Steam

◆ Multiplayer Up to 4 ◆ Link www.divinitydragoncommander.com

85An RTS designed for entertainment rather than eSport. Colorful, fun, and memorable, its elements mesh surprisingly well.

What is it?A steampunk RTS with third-

person shootery, RPG elements, and a strat layer.

Influenced byTotal War, Supreme

Commander

Play it onIntel i5 CPU,

4GB RAM, 1GB videocard

AlternativelyWargame: Airland Battle, 87%

Copy protectionSteam

Need to know

Smaugåsbord

The dragon powers the devs forgot

Pennies From Heaven

Divert underpaid enemies with glittering doubloon drops!

SkycraneCarry arty units

to otherwise unreachable peaks and ledges!

Defl atulenceSlash blimps

then watch them raspberry in random directions!

Look Out BellowCrush entire army

battalions with roar-triggered avalanches!

Double DragonSummon two

side-scrolling street punks to lead your troops!

Bagel KingRaise morale by helping

out with fi eld kitchen toasting duties!

76 NOVEMBER 2013

Some units have manually activated special abilities. Madness.

Without icons and health bars,following battles would be tricky.

Dragons were the IL-2s of their day.

Time to metamorphose! Would you hold my pants?

The AI is quite skilled at amphibious invasions.

There are few surprises amongthe 31 dragon powers.

Yes, but ensure their organs are harvested first.

Not many games do strat maps better.

NOVEMBER 2013 77

What is it?A glum immigration checkpoint

offi cer simulator set in a 1980s communist state.

Influenced byFascism, Phoenix Wright

Play it onDual-core processor,

1GB RAM, GeForce 8800/Radeon AMD 3850

AlternativelyAttempt to

enter North Korea

Copy protectionSteam

Need to know Papers, Please is the intersection of efficiency and intrigue. You’re an immigration

checkpoint officer for a fictional, pseudo-Soviet state in 1982, and it’s your job to vet the foreigners and returning natives who want to cross the border. You do this by poring over their personal documents for inconsistencies—expired forms, faked ID photos, mismatched fingerprint records.

It might sound mundane, but spotting a mislabeled gender or a forged stamp produces real pride, and Papers, Please keeps boredom at bay by gradually introducing incentives for bending or breaking the rules. Checkpoint guards offer to slip you extra money if you detain more people. A drug smuggler will offer you a bribe for letting them across the border. A wife without an entry form might plead to be let through so she can be with her

husband. These interactions disrupt the pleasant, analytical brainwork of scanning and stamping. Over time, plot lines emerge from characters and factions that test your empathy and loyalty, at the center of which is the well-being of your own family, who depend on you for money. Each workday terminates with a score screen where your earnings, penalties, and bribes are tabulated alongside your expenses. Food, rent, heat, and medicine all cost money.

The mental-emotional tug-of-war is impressive, and owes a lot to perfect pacing. The set of rules you judge people by, and your tools for doing so, grow with your competency. United Federation citizens might be prohibited one day. You might receive orders to confiscate certain passports. A new type of form might be required. It’s thoughtfully balanced in a way that stays just a step ahead of you in

difficulty as you become a more efficient bureaucrat.

My enthusiasm for Papers sank a little when I realized how much the game’s interesting characters—such as the recurring encounters with members of a secret organization—are scripted to appear at set moments. Replaying Papers’ early stages a second or third time feels like busywork, as you’re stuck doing elementary checks on basic forms. In these ways Papers simply shows the limitations of being a game made by a single person. There are 20 endings for the story, but some are small variations, and not all have unique art to express them. Likewise, your family, the crux of your motivation, is only represented with text, a missed opportunity to get more emotional investment out of players with, say, a depressing pixelated depiction of an ill mother-in-law.

An Endless mode alleviates some of Story mode’s monotony by enabling you to compete on leaderboards for prestige, but above all Papers, Please is a $10 ticket to emotional manipulation, left-brain stimulation, and elegantly-paced virtual paperwork wrapped in clever storytelling.

◆ Expect to pay $10 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer Lucas Pope ◆ Publisher Self-published

◆ Multiplayer None ◆ Link www.papersplea.se

An original and pleasantly demanding puzzle game that leaves you wanting slightly more variety.

87

APPROVEDDarkly compulsive, PAPERS, PLEASE is more than just a borderline success by Evan Lahti

The art style nicely evokes asense of ’80s austerity.

Top left? That’s the ever-growing line.

Your decisions can have serious repercussions.

Just be grateful the game’s not that interactive.

Blue face, huh?REJECTED.

Don’t let your finances get asred as the state you work for.

78 NOVEMBER 2013

review

HERR SUIT

WEIgHTlESS

◆ Expect to pay $10 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer Pwnee Studios

◆ Publisher Ubisoft ◆ Multiplayer None ◆ Link www.pwnee.com

Reloaded should at least laugh at the idea. Instead it makes you gamble for four hours to earn enough money to pay for all the tiresome taxi rides to locations where racial stereotypes and large-breasted women sell you sad, unfunny dialogue.

Dying is used as a teaching tactic, a frustrating hangover from the primordial soup. The story is charmless in translation, and offers so little freedom and choice that you feel like a ball in a particularly cruel pinball machine. In Reloaded, Larry is a problem to be solved by the world instead of a problem solver; the journey of a man who has no reason to be cheerful.

And all the while, some sneering jerk is narrating it all. I just sat there and gambled until I finally felt so angry with the game that I wanted to stab my screen.

Whichever route you choose, Cloudberry’s main draw is how the stages escalate to ridiculous complexity. The screen can be almost completely obscured by lasers, wrecking balls, and spinning blades. It’s tempting to draw comparisons with Super Meat Boy, but where that was meticulously designed to demand absolute precision, this mostly requires confidence. Moving obstacles and platforms are usually synchronized, so simply going for it without hesitation tends to result in success.

Yet Cloudberry doesn’t feel great under the fingers. Bob feels hollow, lacking the weight of a Mario or a Meat Boy. In particular, he doesn’t so much jump as elevate.

For all its technical cleverness, Cloudberry Kingdom fails to the get the basics right.

These days, when the internet provides people-shy games enthusiasts with everything

they could ever want to know about diverse human sexuality, women in spine-cracking poses are still all over every videogame. In RPGs like Dragon Age, you hand gifts to your intended lover until sex falls out. Larry set up that framework in 1987; this is the Kickstarted reboot.

Few people in the games industry seem to realize the original Leisure Suit Larry was not a directive. Any such scurrilous thought flew right over the balding head of this remake. It feels tawdry and awkward, its spells of mechanical obtuseness an awful inherited leftover from an earlier era of adventure games whose unforgiving death sentences should never be replicated.

Since Larry practically invented inventory-gutting coinslot-women,

it doesn’t look like much. A rudimentary run-and-jump platform game. But behind this

crude exterior is some splendid technical wizardry that can procedurally generate thousands of quick-fire levels, with the difficulty of each based on your previous performances—such as how frequently you died.

Arcade mode is the headline act, challenging you to complete as many levels as possible before you run out of lives. But the best bet for newcomers is probably story mode. This casts you as a hero named Bob in a parody of the standard princess/castle fare, and is interspersed with lovingly crafted and mildly amusing paper animations depicting Bob’s journey. Along the way, Bob gains access to equipment such as a jetpack and a spaceship, adding some spice to the jumpy-jumpy platforming.

◆ Expect to pay $20 ◆ Release Out now ◆ Developer nFusion Interactive

◆ Publisher Replay Games ◆ Multiplayer None ◆ Link www.replaygamesinc.com

Leisure suit Larry: reLoaded needs to be Kickstopped by Cara Ellison

CLoudberry Kingdom needs a lesson in physics by Rick Lane

40

60

Breasts are always funny. Look, even the lampshades are breasts!

Nobody noticed the severed hand left by the church door.

The visuals are colorfulbut fairly basic.

Gandalf found himselfpraying for another Balrog.

NOvembeR 2013 79

That car is not moving!” I shout at my monitor for the third time tonight. If I were rational, I’d worry about what

the neighbors will think. Instead, I stare pointedly at the polygonal red coupe holding up traffic in front of me, my finger inching closer to the “H” key. Finally, I can’t take it anymore—I mash the key three times, short staccato bursts that would tell any California driver that they were being the jerkiest of jerks. But it doesn’t work: in Europe, the horn must be an affirmation.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 is not supposed to be this stressful. My friends assured me that this intensely detailed sim of hauling freight on the highways of foreign countries was relaxing, even blissful. They raved about

CAUSING TRAFFIC JAMS IN EURO TRUCK SIMULATOR 2

I’ll never be a Willie Nelson song if I stick to the spreadsheets.

building a trucking business, buying and customizing semis, taking the high-paying jobs. They told me that driving an 18-wheeler across an exquisite recreation of Germany’s freeway system would ease my cares away. Instead, I’m stuck in a simulated traffic jam, and behind the wheel of a ten-ton death trap. So much for the Zen garden experience.

I mean, it should be calming. The view from my big rig as I haul down Swiss highways is gorgeous, the kind of beautiful scenery an uncultured American imagines Europe is filled with. When I see wind farms a few miles ahead of me after merging onto the freeway, I actually turn to my girlfriend and make her watch. Then I reach for the keyboard shortcut for my turn signal, look away from the screen for one brief moment, and promptly ram a sedan off the freeway. That’s ten percent more damage to my cargo, not to mention a high fine for causing a disturbance on the road.

If ETS2 is truly a

simulation of what it’s like to haul freight across Europe’s great highways, its creators must firmly believe that Europeans cannot drive. They merge on a whim. They signal right turns and then turn left. They sit, inexplicably, at stop lights and refuse to move. Maneuverability is supposed to be an issue—these things are beasts, after all—but even simple right-hand turns become a complete disaster when an AI driver tries to zoom into my lane mid-turn.

The entirety of Europe doesn’t give a damn that I’m late on my delivery.

The job I’m on, delivering oil drums or nuclear waste or something like that, pays close to 3,000 euros, but I’ve racked up 1,000 euros in damages and fines. And it’s not even my truck—I’m still saving up for the first of my company’s fleet, which costs 100,000 euros. I can take a loan out for the truck, but

I’ll need to take on higher paying, and longer, jobs to even cover the interest at this point. I might be better at this game if I were just managing the actual

Wind farms off the highway are visual treats during a long haul.

READ ME

RELEASED October 2012OUR REVIEW www.pcgamer.com, 85%BUY IT $40 Steam MORE www.bit.ly/TTloWq

CORY BANKS

This month Stressed out during a delivery run to Bern. Wrestled with an out-of-control semi.Also Played League of Legends, Borderlands 2

GET MORE FROM YOUR GAMING

THE PC GAMER TEAM

CORY

BEN

JAKE

TYLER

EVAN

NOW PLAYING

80 NOVEMBER 2013

I have 30 seconds to find and defuse the bomb—no, make that 29. It’s one-on-one, but I have no idea where my enemy is.

Walking, I step into the bombsite. 25 seconds left. No time for indecision. I run forward and hear someone reloading behind a crate to my right. Spinning around the box, I hold down my mouse button. Twenty seconds and 12 bullets later, I’m on the bomb. Five seconds later, I’m dead: I forgot to buy a defuse kit.

I used to think that I was a good Counter-Strike

player. After exactly 4,686 rounds played, I’m pretty damn sure that I’m at least average. Although I’m not bad at sending my

crosshair somewhere in the vicinity of a player’s head, half the time my bullets hit nothing but air. If anything, I’ve only come far enough to realize my own weaknesses.

I run into this problem a lot. I get to a point where I could buckle down and start the grueling process of improvement, as I once did in StarCraft II, but instead I decide to move onto greener pastures. I know how I can improve, but Counter-Strike isn’t a game where you just identify your shortcomings and address them directly. It takes thousands of hours of practice to actually have an effect.

This is particularly distressing because CS is a game that flaunts your mistakes and successes. Hit a sick shot that turns around the round? Everyone saw it. Conversely, accidentally kill yourself with a poorly placed grenade? Everyone saw that, too.

I guess I’ll stick to playing casual matches with my friends. At least in those I don’t get called out for misplaying a bombsite retake or for forgetting to check my corners.

TRYING NOT TO LOOK A FOOL IN COUNTER-STRIKE: GO

trucking business instead of heading out on the highway, which is depressing to realize. I’ll never be a Willie Nelson song if I stick to the spreadsheets.

Back in the traffic jam, I decide it’s time to make a move. I crane my mouse to the left, moving the camera over enough to look at my driver’s side mirror and see if I’m clear. Nothing behind my wide load. On my controller, I shift into reverse, preparing to inch my truck back a bit. The reverse signal beeps incessantly, distracting me from how I need to crank the steering wheel to get the angle I want. Another car begins to slowly pull up behind me. My stress level is growing steadily now.

I push a touch too hard on the gas and my cargo crashes into a speed limit sign. Everything stops; I hold my breath. Will the game ding me, deducting euros from my bank account? I wait a beat, and then another. Nothing. I’ll take even the smallest of victories at this point. I crank the wheel, hit the gas and pull away from the ensuing chaos as quickly as possible—which, in a semi, is not very fast.

I’ve only come far enough to realize my own weaknesses.

You want me to fit in there?

Almost...almost...nope, let me start again.

Aren’t bullet proof vests supposed to hold my organs in?

He’s no Neo —that’s for sure.

READ ME

RELEASED August 2012OUR REVIEW Dec. 2012, 84%BUY IT $15 SteamMORE www.bit.ly/12FgvpA

Come on, man. Go!

That’s an awfully large gun, dwags.

BEN KIM

This month Predicts an early retirement from Classic Competitive Counter-Strike: GOAlso Played Civilization V:Brave New World

NOVEMBER 2013 81

TThe four Avernites had been on the surface for 94 days when they came across the port town of Calloc. It only

takes one look at their pale skin to tell that they’re from Avernum, a place where the Empire exiles the worst criminals to a life without sunlight.

In their time on the surface, they’d gooied their swords fighting slimes in the Krizsan Province, crushed a cockroach factory on the mysterious Isle of Bigail, fended off a horde of troglodytes in the Karnold Province, and battled golems in the Monroe Province.

They’re tired now, and Calloc is small enough that there won’t be any Empire Dervishes to notice who they are, but big enough to have an inn. Talking to the

can’t hide a cave that well. But then, as if out of thin air, the party is surrounded by two dozen hulking Ursagi. Okay, so maybe they are somewhat intelligent. Flanking the Ursagi were red goblins too. Fantastic.

Unfortunately for the Ursagi and goblins, my previous adventurers had been much worse than this. The mage drops a dozen with one Arcane Blow spell and the two warriors quickly cut down the rest. My priest didn’t even have to lift a finger!

The adventurers make the short trip back to Calloc’s inn, exhausted. The innkeeper remarks that they should have taken care of the Nephilim anyway. My leader resists the urge to grab his sword. Time to sleep, finally.

The next day, they’re off again. They’ve been told by their superiors back in Avernum that there are alien beasts to the north, more powerful than anything they’ve

encountered previously. But, of course, they heard the exact same thing about the slimes, cockroaches, trogodytes, giants, and golems.

innkeeper reveals there’s a small bandit problem, however. Nephilim, a cat-like race of people, are believed to be stealing the town’s crops. My wallet is spitting out moths and some hard earned gold sounds nice. Looks like sleep will have to wait.

Sure enough, there’s a small band of Nephilim nestled in a valley to the northeast. Rather than attack the pitiful creatures and end the quest quickly, I opt to approach them and talk. My party’s leader is a Nephilim himself after all—these guys are probably his cousins or something. Most flee, but the chieftain stays. He explains that a pack of mutant, intelligent bears known as Ursagi are to blame. It turns out that the Nephilim were hunting the Ursagi near Calloc when villagers mistook them as the ones stealing the crops.

So the adventurers trek to a new destination: a hidden cave to the east of Calloc where I easily uncover the entrance to the Ursagi den. Ha! For “mutant intelligent bears” they sure

And beer. Inns are good for beer, too.

Welcome to scenic Avernum—where trees are huge.

HAVING OLD-TIMEY ROLEPLAYING ADVENTURES IN AVERNUM 3

Looks like there won’t be any sleep tonight.

READ ME

RELEASED 2002OUR REVIEW N/ABUY IT $10 www.avernum.comMORE www.spiderwebsoftware.com

JAKE GODIN

This month Saved small villages from trivial problems while procrastinating bigger problems.Also Played Crusader Kings II

Ursagi may be pink, but they sure aren’t cuddly.

From a time when immersionmeant reading a bunch of text.

Inns: the staple of anyold-school RPG.

NOW PLAYING The games we love, right now

82 NOVEMBER 2013

There’s a great version of Hitman’s iconic Silverballer pistol (www.bit.ly/

balltilidie) that I’ve started using in place of the Magnum. Even though the mod only swaps the model, animations and sounds, somehow the Silverballer prompts me to play efficiently in a way that the Magnum never did.

It sounds like a stapler. It pops politely when you fire, compared to the Magnum’s arcing, vertical uppercut. But those simple

SWAPPING OUT THE BORING ARMORY OF LEFT 4 DEAD 2

stupid, hilarious shared experience.Spelunky’s surprises are its bursts of fun.

Everything interacts as it ought to, which is somehow unexpected. Like when I found a personal teleporter and accidentally telefragged Paul, or when his freeze ray turned me into a floating ice cube. After an hour we’re still laughing as a bouncing shotgun repeatedly knocks both of us unconscious, and I’m glad, for a while, not to be in a dark room speaking through a digital voice codec over Skype.

I’d almost forgotten local multiplayer existed, especially on PC, where sharing a screen feels as quaint as hoop-and-stick,

something only done during historical reenactments of the ’90s and with obsolete devices: two wired controllers and a friend I’m actually sitting next to.

It’s mid-July and, convinced I need some old-timey fun, I finally get off Skype to visit indie dev Paul Hubans across town. He has a copy of Spelunky’s new PC version, an overhaul of the roguelike platformer, now with co-op and deathmatch mode. After pillaging his roommate’s room for that elusive second controller, we perch shoulder-to-shoulder to battle.

We turn every deathmatch option up to 99—that’s 99 health, 99 bombs, and 99 rounds—

RE-ENACTING THE ’90S IN

SPELUNKY DEATHMATCH

differences are enough to make me feel like a zombie-hunting James Bond. Its eight-shot magazine capacity means that almost every bullet has to connect and I have to be deliberate about when I reload. It shares the Magnum’s ability to penetrate common Infected, so I constantly try to position myself in a way that scores multiple kills per shot—doing this feels like picking up a seven-ten split in bowling. Nothing in L4D2’s armory, not even the sniper rifles, produces this combination of marksmanship, spontaneity, and vulnerability.

Grab The Police Department (www.bit.ly/

police4) or GoldenEye 4 Dead (www.bit.ly/

l4dgold) too, two campaigns that hand you the weapon early on. If you want to feel like a cowboy, get the Smith & Wesson 29 mod (www.bit.

ly/wessonl4d2), AKA Dirty Harry’s revolver.

because when that’s an option, it’s always the correct option. A screen of rock platforms and spikes loads, our characters on opposite sides. Naturally, we both spam the bomb button, crossing streams of

cartoon-style fused bowling balls and evaporating both our footing. Our little guys plummet into spikes. Nobody wins! So we go again, and again—it’s a

I feel like a zombie-hunting James Bond.

Pistol-only L4D2 can get rough.

Justin Bieber makes an excellent Witch.

This month Disemboweled a zombie Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man with a lightsaber.Also Played Torchlight II, Magic 2014

EVAN LAHTI

READ ME

RELEASED August 2013OUR REVIEW N/ABUY IT $15 SteamMORE www.spelunkyworld.com

READ ME

RELEASED November 2009OUR REVIEW Jan. 2010, 92%BUY IT $20 SteamMORE www.l4dmaps.com

With four players, Spelunky deathmatch is madness.

Sharing a screen feels as quaint as hoop-and-stick.

This month Traveled by light rail to sit next to someone and play a multiplayer game. Also Played Tribes: Ascend, Gunpoint

TYLER WILDE

NOVEMBER 2013 83

TRACKMANIA 2 STADIUM MAPS STEAM WORKSHOP TRACKS FOR TM2 STADIUM

The trickiest, most intricate,

and stunt-fi lled course designs

available for the stadium based

spin-off of TrackMania 2. PS

NIGHT RIDER

The third map from the prolifi c Tschilumbu. Watch out for the loop

into a wall ride section. www.bit.ly/PCGTM-4

BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Starts with the usual loops and corkscrews, but it’s the giant jump and 90

degree turn that’ll catch you off guard.www.bit.ly/PCGTM-3

TOPFENSTRUDEL 2

A redesign of the popular TM United course, full of improbable wall-rides,

jumps, and diffi cult technical sections.www.bit.ly/PCGTM-2

ENDURATION 2

A track boasting more twists and turns than Spaghetti Junction. Or,

indeed, spaghetti itself.www.bit.ly/PCGTM-1

Falskaar was created by 19-year-old

Alexander Velicky as part of a plan to

catch the attention of Bethesda’s

designers. It’s probably the most expansive

job application you can play, adding a new

island and questline, with a selection of

sidequests to discover.

It starts in Riften, where you’ll meet a man

who, judging from his voice, started life as a

cartoon prospector in the Wild West. He

sends you to a cave full of bandits. It holds

an ancient portal to Falskaar: a

mysterious island in the far north

with three holds to explore,

inhabited by descendants of

Nord settlers.

Naturally, as Dragonborn,

prophecies attach to you

like horny dogs to a leg. As

the first person to emerge

through the portal, you’re

hailed as the “Traveler,” a sign

that unspecified bad stuff is coming.

Falskaar doesn’t deviate from the basic

Skyrim template as much as certain similarly

ambitious quest mods. Moonpath to Elsweyr

still marks the highpoint of imaginative

environmental design, and Wyrmstooth

boasts well implemented gimmicks, such as

the mission where you possess a draugr.

Instead, Falskaar is like an expanded

homage, offering a large collection of well-

made but ultimately familiar missions,

locations, and storylines.

It’s still one of the most professionally

made mods available. The voice acting,

while occasionally a bit heavy on the

caricature, is well recorded and offers a

variety well beyond Skyrim’s own cast. And

the dungeon design is mostly

excellent, providing a series of

measured encounters that

should be well balanced for

mid-game characters.

Installation is best

handled through the

Skyrim Nexus mod

manager, found at www.

bit.ly/SkyrimMM. The mod’s

size means it’s not available

from Steam Workshop. It’s worth

browsing the FAQ on the mod’s Nexus page:

there you’ll find the thankfully small list of

potential conflicts that can occur if you’re

running other mods. PS

www.bit.ly/Falskaar

2

MOD PART SKYRIM EXPANSION, PART PLAYABLE RESUME

FALSKAAR1

“Hey, mind my lamp!”

PHIL SAYS... “Apparently the coverletter was a seven-part fetch- quest.”

DOWNLOADS10TOP

Free games stuff from the web

84 NOVEMBER 2013

Sega has a hard time making new 2D Sonic

games; that much is apparent from the Sonic

the Hedgehog 4 episodes, which completely

failed to recapture the original format. It would be a

sad end to the series if not for its talented

community, whose loving recreations capture the

delicate balance between skill and precision.

Sonic After the Sequel is just such a project. Set

between the second and third games, it lets you play

Sonic or Tails through a selection of new levels that

tell of how the Death Egg came to crash land on

Angel Island. Despite some occasional bugs and the

slightly awkward acceleration of Sonic, it’s a well-

designed tribute. A Sonic 2 prequel is also available,

aptly called Sonic Before the Sequel. PS

www.bit.ly/SonicATS

FREEWARE A FAN PROJECT SET BEFORE IT ALL WENT WRONG

FREEWARE A PUZZLE ABOUT CUBES AND ANNOYANCE

THEY DON’T STOP COMING

SONIC AFTER THE SEQUEL

As an entry in weekend gamemaking

competition Ludum Dare 26, this

certainly fits the minimalism theme.

It’s a turn-based puzzle game about

positioning, where you navigate your green

cube toward his yellow goal. Standing in

your way are a cleverly designed series of

mazes, filled with evil red cubes. PS

www.bit.ly/TheyDontStop

B

A

ADVENTURE TIME GAME CREATOR WEBGAME THE FUN WILL NEVER

END: IT’S ADVENTURE TIME

Recreate Jake and Finn’s

charmingly bizarre adventures

in the Land of Ooo. Just as long as

your imagination can only conjure

up a basic 2D platformer level, that

is, and not the time they angered

a magic man and Finn was turned

into a foot.

You choose from a selection of

preset levels, and then tailor them

to three playable characters. Finn’s

projectile sword throw can swat

down projectiles, Jake’s stretchy

powers give him an extendible

punch, and enemy bats are cool

with Marceline the Vampire Queen.

It’s possible to change the

ultimate goal of the level, and

litter the screen with obstacles and

collectibles, including a power-up

that unlocks special attacks. You

can also play the community’s

creations, the best of which do

interesting things around the

game’s constraints. PS

www.bit.ly/AdventureTimeGC

5

ARED CUBES These guys are trying to head you off. They move simultaneously with you,

taking the most advantageous route to cut you off.

BLUE CUBES Can be pushed by either you or the red cubes. They can easily trap you if you

move them in the wrong direction.

SPECIAL CUBES Have various properies. These ones block their darker counterparts.

You’ll need the red to push one toward you.

4

B

C

C

3

I am Sonic, Devourer

of Worlds.

NOVEMBER 2013 85

FREEWARE QUICK IDEAS FROM INDIE STARS

EXPERIMENT 12

This is a collaboration between 12

indie developers, each of whom

spent three days developing their

chapter before passing it to the next.

It starts as a 2D Terry Cavanagh

platformer in which every hit degrades

your mental state. Items you collect

produce unexpected results, and lo-fi

cutscenes depict your character’s

increasingly bad time. Chapter 2 picks up

the story—only now you’re in a top-down

maze where moving away from the walls

will cause the level to shake and distort.

As you progress, you’ll see riffs from

the makers of Lone Survivor, Eversion,

Radiator, Corrypt, Kairo, and Blues for

Mittavinda. All play with themes of illness

and anxiety that trace a line back to the

first chapter, while also introducing new

ideas for the next developer to reference.

Every chapter is its own self contained

set of rules and systems, but the

constant callbacks create a strong sense

of familiarity. You’ll find clever puzzles,

arcade shooters and obtuse adventures,

but despite the eclectic mix of genres, it

still feels like a cohesive whole. PS

www.bit.ly/Experiment12

At the time, Doom felt brutal. Enemies

would fly back in jets of blood

spatter, crumple into gooey piles, or

gib into a shower of meaty chunks. It was

undoubtedly violent, but your

imagination was doing a lot of the

work. In the 20 years since its

release, games have become

increasingly good at

rendering high resolution

gore spraying from the neck

of a recently stabbed

victim. Doom seems almost

quaint by comparison.

Brutal Doom attempts to

change this in the most over the top

way possible. Like Spinal Tap, it turns things

up to 11—except instead of a guitar amp, it’s

a slider labelled, “How much blood should

fly out of this enemy?” Weapons have been

rebalanced, and objects have been tweaked

to allow for greater interaction, but really, it’s

all about how much more outrageous the

game feels. The minigun now shreds

enemies piece by piece, the rocket

launcher makes body parts

dance across the room, and

the “Beserk” power-up

enables vicious executions

that coat the walls in blood.

It’s been out for a while,

but constant revisions have

turned it into something

horrifyingly spectacular. Version

19 is currently in the works, and will

likely mark the final, gory blow of Brutal

Doom’s assault on hell. PS

www.bit.ly/DoomBrutal

6

COMMANDER VIDEO WEBGAME RUN HABIT

C reated as a promotional tie-in

for BIT.TRIP side-scrolling

platformer Runner 2, Commander

Video is based on that game’s

8-bit-aping bonus levels. But

where the original had you perfect

a set route, this is an endless

auto-runner along procedurally

generated obstacles. The

randomization means you miss out

on the rhythm element, but the

basic controls—jump, kick, block,

and spring—are all included.

Your job is to progress as far as

skill will allow, while collecting the

gold bars that fl oat throughout

the level. While the gentle start

tricks you into thinking much of

the complexity has been removed,

you’re put under more pressure

to tap out increasingly complex

patterns to progress. At fi rst it’s

spiders to duck underneath, but it

soon escalates to frantic sliding,

kicking, or batting away projectiles

while being fl ung through the air.

While not as responsive as

the best of the auto-runners—

Canabalt, or Robot Unicorn

Attack—it’s an effective primer

for what makes its parent so

satisfying, with a leaderboard

system that encourages lengthy

sessions. PS

www.commandervideo.com

MOD DOOM THE WAY YOU REMEMBER IT

BRUTAL DOOM7

PHIL SAYS... “If only we could talk to the monsters. They’d say ‘ow’ a lot.”

8

It’s raining blood, hallelujah.

Smell my existential pain.

DOWNLOADS10TOP

Free games stuff from the web

86 NOVEMBER 2013

MACHINIMA

MAKE GOOD TEAM WITH THE HELP OF TEAM SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

1 Cooperative engineering

Engineers: remember to help each other out by looking after a fellow Engi’s sentry gun when they’re forced to leave it. Do this and you will get all of the thumbs ups. www.bit.ly/TF2SA-1

2Sentry knockback

An ubercharged Heavy is no good if he’s being held at bay by the knockback of a sentry’s bullets. To prevent this, send the Medic in to distract it. Possibly by twerking. www.bit.ly/TF2SA-2

3 TeleportersHow best to visualize the

order of priority with which team members should be allowed to use the teleporter? With a full team dance party. Dancing or not, Scouts still aren’t allowed in.www.bit.ly/TF2SA-3

4 Pocket MedicsAn injured Scout and

Demoman find their rescue doesn’t go as planned when they’re found by a “pocket Medic.” A gentle reminder that sticking blindly to a Heavy isn’t always the best tactic. www.bit.ly/TF2SA-4

YouTube user anangrysockpuppet

has used Source Filmmaker to create a series of comedy shorts to help new players understand Team Fortress 2. All are comically ridiculous over-exaggerations of bad behavior, but unlike many SFM fi lms dealing with newbies, they make their point without feeling mean-spirited.

Last year, the Molyjam gave its worldwide entrants a weekend to create a game based around the

tweets of Peter Molydeux: a parody persona whose high-concept ideas poke fun at the endearingly eccentric developer Peter Molyneux. The result led to games about the remorseful ghost of Rambo, or the concept of playing as a road.

Rather than playing off parody quotes, the follow-up jam turns directly to the real life Molyneux. A selection of interview quotes were picked, divorced of context, then collected in a list for entrants to draw inspiration from. Happily, the results are just as bizarre and experimental as the first time. Here are three of the best, and the quotes that inspired them. PS

MOLYJAM DEUX GAME JAM MORE FROM THE

MIND OF MOLYNEUX

BACK TO THE FIRST DATE“I wish I had some time machine and could

go back two weeks. You live by your mistakes, for sure.” Two time travelers meet in a restaurant—no, this isn’t the setup for a joke. Instead, it’s a game in which you alternate between two characters who’ve traveled back in time to fi x an awkward fi rst date. The story is explored in a comic book style with dialogue options to click on, and, inevitably for a tale of time travel, you alter the initial faux-pas only to fi nd new disasters lurking around each topic. Will Rajar and Sofi a ever stop screwing up?www.bit.ly/Molydeux1

NO HOLDS, BARD!“I want you to think of the sword as a

conductor’s baton. As you’re fi ghting, we’ll be introducing different musical elements, the more successful you are. And we’ll be upping the tempo of the music, the more abilities that you unlock. So you not only get more of a score, you get a cooler soundtrack.” The result is a rhythm RPG, in which you capture towers and defeat enemies to the beat. www.bit.ly/Molydeux2

DO ANYTHING“If you really were free to do anything in

the world, I think you’d end up being confused, and that’s a very interesting point, a design point, actually.” And so Do Anything sets out to confuse you—at fi rst by celebrating every action that you take, be it walking to a spot or looking at a mirror. By the end, things have gotten much sillier, as you explode turtles and level up an acorn.www.bit.ly/Molydeux3

9

6 DEGREES OF SABOTAGE WEBGAME GUESS WHO?

Detection is a theme woven through at least two of Lucas

Pope’s games. Before Pope created the immigration document scrutinization sim Papers, Please, he made the saboteur fi nder-outer sim 6 Degrees of Sabotage. The browser game asks you to correctly identify the conspirators in a bomb

plot. You know who originated the scheme, and who executed it, but not the collaborators that the bomb instructions were passed between. To fi nd them, you spy a set of 14 caricatured characters—baker, landscaper, soldier, sailor—as they appear in four separate scenes. Between each scene, grouped conspirators change their positions, so the key is spotting who moved. The fi fth scene shows everyone fl eeing and gives you a sniper rifl e with fi ve bullets to assassinate the criminals amid a crowd of panicked innocents.

It’s a little like a low-fi SpyParty (http://spyparty.com) mixed with Guess Who and Clue. Sabotage was an entry for Ludum Dare 23, a 48-hour game jam (watch a time-compressed video of Pope’s work during the event here: www.bit.ly/

sabotage1). EL

www.bit.ly/sabosix

NOVEMBER 2013 87

It’s still out there. I can hear it through the

door, wandering around the hallway. I

lean around the corner quickly to look,

catching the back of its head as it turns the

corner. “Is...someone...there?” I hear it ask,

dragging a shotgun along and searching for

the intruder—me. I have no ammo, and I’m

out of psi-hypos. My only chance is

to bludgeon it with a wrench

before its friends show up. Seizing

my chance, I rush out, holding the

mouse button down in order to

prep my wrench swing. But it sees

me, shoves its shotgun out and

shouts, “Kill...me!”

System Shock 2 is about fear and

scarcity above all else. Irrational

Games’ first game is where it

developed the mechanics familiar

to anyone who’s played BioShock:

build a world the player wants to

explore, drop them in, and watch

them uncover how that world fell

apart. Nothing builds fear and

tension like isolation, with limited

resources and no one to help you.

But while the studio’s later games

are shinier, its first outing is both more

complex and, ultimately, more terrifying.

The sense of isolation is present from

the beginning, where you generate your

cybernetic soldier by choosing a base class—

system uses a drag-and-drop grid system

overlaid across the playing window, and

accessing it doesn’t stop the monsters from

hitting you. Security crates, cameras, turrets,

and vending machines can all be hacked

through a “match-three” minigame, which

interrupts the action far less than BioShock’s

pipe-building puzzles. The desks on board

the Von Braun starship are filled with items

you can pick up; some, like credits and

hypos, are immediately useful.

Others, like orange juice or

potted plants, may not be.

It’s an obsessive level of

detail that makes the Von

Braun feel lived in, and while

rare back then, it’s a feature

found in many games since.

System Shock 2’s backstory

is told through audio logs

discovered throughout the ship, a

storytelling trope that has inspired lots of

modern games. The vocal performances in

these logs are as chilling now as they were

in 1999—listening to the horror descend on

the crew intensifies the terror of your own

predicament. The logs also show off the

game’s impressive audio design, particularly

in the menacing sounds of hybrids and

cybernetic midwives. Thanks to SS2, I’m

convinced to this day that all monkeys hide

psionic powers and plan to overthrow us.

Hybrids—crew members infected by The Many—are early-game enemies, but still dangerous.

gun-toting Marine, hacking-heavy Navy

officer, or psionically-enhanced OSI agent—

and then customize them through a

predetermined set of missions. Even though

I had played SS2 years before, I couldn’t

remember how the bonuses would affect

my character, and the game doesn’t really

explain the benefits. A tutorial shows me

how the three classes will play, but

there’s no tutorial text for the

customization options. Luckily,

I’ll get to tailor my character

further throughout the

game by finding cybernetic

modules and spending

them at upgrade kiosks.

Each step you take has

a weight to it, so movements

like crouching or strafing feel

more deliberate than in modern

shooters. Attacking includes that

same sense of weight. You won’t swing

your wrench like a master swordsman, but

must pull it back to attack position before

bringing it down on an enemy. Guns—once

you’re lucky enough to find one—also

degrade with use, requiring constant repair

and occasional modification. If this sounds

complex, it is: you’re not a superhero in SS2.

In fact, you’re just trying to survive.

Even your interactions with the world will

leave you vulnerable. The game’s inventory

READ ME

FIRST REVIEWED

Oct. 1999, 92%

DEVELOPER

Irrational Games/ Looking Glass Studios

PUBLISHER

EA

RELEASE

1999

SURVIVAL HORROR IN OUTER SPACE IN SYSTEM SHOCK 2 by Cory Banks

You’re not a superhero. In fact, you’re just trying to survive

CORY SAYS...“All these years later, SS2 is still my favorite Shock game.”

88 NOVEMBER 2013

Because SS2 provides so few resources, I found myself hoarding ammo, health and psionic hypos though most of the game, and relying on melee attacks with the wrench. Security cameras quickly alerted monsters to my presence—and those alerts last for (what feels like) forever. That tension directly contrasts with BioShock: instead of shooting my way past enemies, I had to wait them out, or outsmart them. I crouched behind boxes or desks for much of the game, waiting for a hybrid to pass or a camera to turn before rushing in for the kill or hack.

That tension carries over to your character’s upgrade options, where every

new power or skill meant I was missing out on other possibilities. Ignoring hacking or psionics means there are crates I won’t get to open, or powers that won’t be available to me. Every choice I made for my soldier’s upgrades mattered, and so I took them seriously. BioShock’s plasmids, in comparison, are far more accessible. I was never going to miss out on using Incinerate.

My favorite part of revisiting SS2, however, was the relationship that develops between me and SHODAN, the malevolent AI at the center of the story. Without spoiling anything, the twist here feels more personal to me than in BioShock. The suspense of

wondering just when SHODAN would decide to screw with me was delightful, as is her complete contempt for the player.

Almost 15 years on from its release, and with two separate spiritual successors, System Shock 2 still feels fresh. The newest release through GOG.com and Steam allows for higher resolutions, as well as support for the mods created by the game’s community. The interaction is far more complex than BioShock’s run-and-gun approach, and certainly more terrifying. BioShock’s story may be deeper and more refined, but the RPG elements of System Shock 2 still feel ahead of their time today.

THE HORROR Some of System Shock 2’s scary monsters and super creeps

HybridCrew members infected by

The Many. Slow and stupid,

but they love to gang up.

Psionic MonkeyChimps experimented on,

now shoot mind bullets.

Their screech is horrifying.

Cyborg MidwifeNurses that have been

infected so they can care for

The Many’s “young.”

Protocol DroidLike CP-30, but evil.

Droids explode in close

proximity to the player.

ArachnidInfl ict toxic damage, horrible

in swarms. Completely

phobia-inducing.

Turning invisible is hardly fair.SHODAN is both your enemy and your benefactor. Work with her, but do not trust her.

“Quit hanging around, Marco. We’re under attack!”

“Little Ones need lots of meat to grow big and strong...”

NOVEMBER 2013 89

NOVEMBER 2013 91

Standard laptops are so fast, cheap and reliable these days that the average Jane and Joe might as well simply

choose one by the logo they want on display at Starbucks. But this isn’t the case with gaming laptops. Although they’re also powerful, reliable, and offer more power for less money every year, their features and designs are becoming increas-ingly specialized. And seemingly minor differences in hardware can have a major effect on your gaming. So here’s what you need to ask yourself, and what you need to know, before you shop for a rig worthy of your skills.

Laptop vs. Desktop ReplacementThe first question you should ask yourself is whether or not you intend your laptop to be your primary gaming machine. If so, you want a brawny desktop replacement rig (preferably with a dual-GPU graphics card) that prioritizes speed

ExpandabilityWhile the ability to upgrade components (either yourself or by the vendor) can extend the useful life of your rig, you don’t know if your machine will be hardware or firmware compatible with mobile GPUs down the road unless the vendor expressly guarantees it for a limited time. Hard drives and RAM, however, are generally easy to upgrade.

Battery LifeGaming sticks a barbed siphon into your battery and sucks like crazy: few portables with discrete graphics offer more than 2 hours of continuous play. So if you’re likely to carry your laptop around with you a lot, I recommend prioritizing light weight over battery life and taking the power adapter with you when you intend to play games. And desktop-replacement gamers shouldn’t obsess over battery life either. You can buy additional batteries to swap out, but these tend to be very expensive.

BUYER’S ADVICE

Making the right calls on gaming rigs for the road

by Logan Decker

LAPTOPS

and features over battery life. And if you intend to connect it to an external display at home, make sure that your laptop has a video connector that supports the native resolution of your display—and your cables as well (the original HDMI spec, for instance, only supports resolutions up to 1920x1200, whereas HDMI 1.3 connectors and cables support up to 2560x1600).

ScreenI recommend a screen with at least 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 resolution. Glossy screens tend to have more vivid colors while matte screens are less prone to glare. While it’s a matter of personal preference, in general you should stick with glossy screens if your laptop is likely to be used mostly at home, and matte screens if it’ll be frequently used in cafés, outdoors, and in offices with harsh lighting. IPS displays are preferable to standard LEDs, but they’re also pricier and consume more power.

VIDEO PORT

DECODER

DVI (Single Link) > Supports

resolutions up to

1920x1200

resolution.

DVI (Dual Link) > Supports

resolutions up to

2560x1600

resolution (with

24-pin connectors).

HDMI > HDMI 1.0

ports and cables

support resolutions

up to 1920x1200.

The newest

standard, HDMI 1.3,

supports resolutions

up to 2560x1600.

DisplayPort >

DisplayPort 1.0 and

Mini DisplayPort

support resolutions

up to 2560x1600.

DisplayPort 1.2 is

insane, displaying

resolutions beyond

4000x2000—in 3D.

And unlike HDMI,

DisplayPort allows

you to daisy-chain

multiple monitors

with a single

connection.

GET MORE!

Check outwww.techradar.com

to fi nd the latest,best prices.

92 NOVEMBER 2013

GET THE PC YOUR GAMES DESERVE

Valkyrie CZ-27 V3$2,099 www.ibuypower.com

T he hulking, 8.45-pound (10.65 pounds with power adapter) Valkyrie is literally a desktop replacement, since you

could drop it on a milk crate and write letters on the gently sloped 16.75x11.25-inch surface. Pop open the top, however, and you’ve got 17 inches of gorgeous, vivid LED-backlit screen to paint your games over.

Want to play Clash in the Clouds? No problem. She’s got the brains (Intel’s Core i7-4700MQ CPU), the brawn (Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 780M GPU), and the memory (16GB DDR3 RAM, as well as dual 240GB solid-state drives in RAID 0 configuration for extra speed).

The Valykrie doesn’t inflate its comparatively bargain price with superfluous features. Instead, you get useful stuff like five zippy USB ports (three of them 3.0), and a ruggedly-built plastic case that doesn’t squeal when twisted. The rig runs remark-ably cool and quiet under duress, and though I would have liked to have heard more punch in the bass from the built-in speakers at the highest

SPEC ◆ CPU 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 4700MQ ◆ GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M ◆ RAM 16GB DDR3 ◆ Drives 240GB SSD (x2 in RAID 0), DVDRW optical ◆ Display 1920x1080

17.3 LED matte display ◆ Ports 3x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet ◆ OS Windows 8 ◆ OTHER Killer NIC E220 Gaming Networking, SD card slot

volumes, you need a headset to appreciate the nuances of the THX virtual surround sound in games anyway.

The keyboard is exceptionally comfortable, and I loved that the Start key got shoved out of the way over to the right and the unusually clever integration of the arrow keys between the keyboard and Numpad. The trackpad, on the other hand, is a disaster, with dual buttons that take relatively enormous force to depress anywhere but at the extreme edges, listless tracking, and a tendency to mistake the heels of your hands for fingertaps unless sensitivity is dialed down to the point where it’s not responsive enough.

The battery lasted a scant 79 minutes, but that was with the CPU and GPU at full bore—and still better time than everything in this roundup except for the Samsung. You can expect well over two hours watching movies or excavating new subreddits.

Had it not been for that loathsome trackpad iBuypower would have easily walked away with an Editor’s Choice award, but if you don’t mind pocketing a mouse, the Valkyrie is a ridiculously endowed rig that could put many desktop gaming systems to shame.

The Valkyrie’s got power and portability for a generous price. Might want to toss in a nice gaming mouse though.

85

The Valkyrie doesn’t inflate its price with super-fluous features

HOW WE TESTED

Benchmarks> For

testing we use 3DMark,

Metro: Last Light (at the

Very High quality setting),

and Total War: Shogun 2. All

tests are run at 1280x720

and 1920x1080 resolutions

(using an external display

when necessary). We

also use PCMark 8 to sniff

out any performance

anomalies. Plus, games.

Lots of games.

Battery life> We run the

Unigine Heaven benchmark

on a loop at the highest

settings (and with all power

management settings

disabled) until the laptop

poops out.

Value> Each laptop is

evaluated for its balance

of price, benchmark

performance, and

exceptional features, with

bonus points for innovation

and expandability.

GROUP TEST

LAPTOPSBecause you can, and should, take it with you by Logan Decker

GET MORE!

Check outwww.techradar.com

to fi nd the latest,best prices.

NOVEMBER 2013 93

Y ou can’t pick up the Razer Blade—at just a hair over 4 lbs. and less than three-quarters of

an inch thick—without thinking that something wonderful has happened in gaming laptops. The folks at cafés can watch TED talks all day on their MacBook Airs while you’re playing with new Skyrim mods at Ultra settings. And while you’re at it, run your fingers over the matte-finish aluminum chassis, poke at those nearly weightless keys with perfect travel, and give the spacious trackpad a caress too.

This thing was designed to be beautiful and brawny all at once—and it succeeds on both counts. It may have scored second-to-last in our benchmarks, but those tests are grisly. In perspective: you’re still getting a reliable 38 frames per second in BioShock Infinite at 1600x900 with

A nytime there’s a gaming laptop cage-match you can expect to see Alienware come

in with luchador swagger, and at well over two grand, it had better fight like one. The Alienware 14 comes out swinging with higher than average benchmarks and battery life, a 1920x1080 IPS display, a generous 16GB of RAM, a Blu-ray optical drive, and a 256GB SSD for the Windows 7 OS as well as a 750GB mechanical hard drive for your /steamapps folder. So far, so good. But you’re gonna need to hit a little harder to charge that much for these specs. And surprisingly, the Alienware 14 doesn’t.

The two serious backlighting flaws on the otherwise gorgeous IPS display of my review unit weren’t that disconcerting (they weren’t present in other units), but the wheel of disappointment kept turning. The speakers were wimpy at normal

SPEC ◆ CPU 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 4702MQ ◆ GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M ◆ RAM 8GB DDR3 ◆ Drive 256GB SSD ◆ Display 1600x900 14-inch matte LED ◆ Ports 3x USB

3.0, HDMI ◆ OS Windows 8 ◆ OTHER Razer Synapse 2.0 software for custom keyboard profiles

SPEC ◆ CPU 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 4700MQ ◆ GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M ◆ RAM 16GB DDR3 ◆ Drives 256GB SSD, 750GB HD, Blu-ray (slot-loading)

◆ Display 1920x1080 14-inch matte IPS ◆ Ports USB, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet ◆ OS Windows 7 Home Premium

settings at Ultra on a laptop that the airport TSA agents might mistake for a tablet.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that if the TSA boots up the Blade, agents might ask you why the viewing angle is so slim that colors tend to wash out at the corners even looking head-on. Or why there’s no Ethernet jack. Or why the thing gets way too hot for comfort after just a minute or two of play. And they might sniff at the 68 minutes of videocard-heavy play you get before shutdown (which isn’t that bad).

Whatever. If you can live with those aberrations, no one else makes a serious gaming rig this beautiful, light, and powerful. And the Razer Synapse 2.0 software can make it even more useful by letting you create custom keyboard profiles that

But Alienware’s earned a fine reputation over the years that’s durable enough to brush off a hiccup like this one. Fight long enough and you’re bound to lose a round or two.

you can link to specific games. Whether that can justify the two-grand price tag depends on the size of your backpack, and your salary.

It’s a crotchety, noisy, and overall unrefined system that isn’t worth the premium price in its current state.

56

It’s beautiful. It’s impossibly thin. It’s powerful. It’s lustworthy. It’s also too expensive for the sucky screen.

74

Alienware 14$1,900 www.alienware.com

Razer Blade$2,000 www.razerzone.com

volume and are easily overdriven. The slot-loading Blu-ray drive (I wish these were more common) made spontaneous clicking noises throughout my tests, as if it were hungry for discs and gnashing its teeth. Fan noise is awful, cranking up suddenly and loudly while a high-pitched, warbling whine embedded in the noise tries to drive you to murder. Finally, the trackpad is as bad as the one on the Valkyrie, requiring considerable sensitivity adjustments to just barely compensate.

What happened here? Beats me. The build simply lacks the kind of refinement you’d expect for the price, although the classic Alienware flair for overkill is still intact (such as the ability to adjust keyboard lighting throughout “10 different zones” with up to “10,240 billion color combinations”).

94 NOVEMBER 2013

GET THE PC YOUR GAMES DESERVE

The name evokes boardrooms and ugly briefcases, but if there’s any justice it’ll soon

mean serious ass-kicking gaming fu. Inside the handsome brushed-metal chassis lurks two Nvidia GeForce GT 750Ms in SLI config—one built-in and one tucked into the “Ultrabay” on the right side of the rig. That’s an instant surge in the benchmarks right there, with the price offset by dialing back the CPU slightly to Intel’s 2.2GHz Core i7-4702MQ. Another interesting maneuver is the 5,400rpm 1TB mechanical hard drive supplemented by a 24GB SSD for caching.

The IdeaPad breezes by or at least holds its own against every other laptop here except for the tank-like Valkyrie, which costs $800 more. In other words, this thing acts like a desktop replacement while looking

I have to admit that I like the fairly generic Financial District look of Digital Storm’s Veloce. As an

unrepentant cheapskate, I need to believe that every single cent went into the components of my gaming laptop instead of interesting trifles like strobe lighting or genuine sealskin trim. And that seems to be the case here.

The specs are familiar in this roundup: Intel’s 2.7GHZ Core i7 4800MQ CPU, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 765M GPU, 8GB DDR3 RAM, etc. But Digital Storm throws some curveballs, including a slim but speedy 128GB SSD for the OS partition and a generous 750GB mechanical hard drive, plus a rugged and comfortable keyboard with a well-behaved trackpad. And then it busts out with a dashing 13.3-inch, 1920x1080 IPS display that brings down the house.

IPS stands for “in-plane switching.”

SPEC ◆ CPU 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 4702MQ ◆ GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 750M (x2) ◆ RAM 16GB DDR3 ◆ Drives 1TB HD (with 24GB SSD cache drive) ◆ Display 1920x1080 15.6-

inch matte LED ◆ Ports 3x USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet ◆ OS Windows 8 ◆ OTHER SD card slot, swappable “Ultra Bay” (occupied by GeForce GTX 750M)

SPECS ◆ CPU 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 4800HQ ◆ GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M ◆ RAM 8GB DDR3 ◆ Drives 128GB SSD, 750GB HD ◆ Display 1920x1080 13.3-inch matte IPS

◆ Ports 3x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet ◆ OS Windows 8 ◆ OTHER Did I mention that beautiful display?

like a standard largish laptop (at about 15.25 across and .61 inches deep). The spacious trackpad is fantastic, with sharp tracking and integrated buttons clickable from the bottom-half down. The red-backlit keyboard is comfortable and quiet, and battery life is in the upper echelons in this roundup at 71 minutes of non-stop GPU hammering. But connections are limited to two USB 3.0 ports, a single HDMI-out, and ye olde VGA port. While the 15.6-inch matte screen isn’t an IPS display, it sure looks like one with good color (just a touch on the soft side) and a breathtaking lateral viewing tolerance.

This much loot for $1,600 sets off my street con-artist alarm bells, but this is the real deal. Go for it.

Something to do with how molecules are arranged. Anyway, what you get are rich, luscious colors on a glare-resistant matte screen that retain their saturation under all the but the brightest lighting conditions, and a viewing angle so wide that you could be writing an email in the window seat that the guy in the aisle seat could read.

The flip side of its small size might be the Veloce’s pitiful battery performance, at 55 minutes of looped, GPU-heavy gaming. Or perhaps a half-hour of gaming and a movie not directed by Peter Jackson.

While the Veloce lands around the middle of the chart in terms of benchmarks, it lets you get torn to pieces in Metro: Last Light at 34fps, Very High settings, and full 1920x1080 resolution—and all this for several hundred dollars less than the fancier lads.

It’s not fancy-looking on the outside, but it’s damn fancy-looking on the screen. And a great deal to boot.

82

If somebody bought this for my birthday I would be enormously impressed by their intelligence and eye for value. Any takers?

93

Veloce$1,596 www.digitalstorm.com

IdeaPad Y510p$1,600 www.lenovo.com

NOVEMBER 2013 95

SPEC ◆ CPU 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 3630QM ◆ GPU AMD Radeon HD 8700 ◆ RAM 8GB DDR3 ◆ Drives 1TB HD

◆ Display 1920x1080 glossy touchscreen LED ◆ Ports USB, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet ◆ OS Windows 8

SPEC ◆ CPU 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 4800MQ ◆ GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M ◆ RAM 16GB DDR3 ◆ Drives 240GB

SSD, 750GB HD ◆ Display 1920x1080 13.3-inch matte IPS ◆ Ports USB, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet ◆ OS Windows 7 HP

89

The EON13-S, despite the space-age name, looks about as sober as a gaming laptop

can. The dark gray matte finish and standard chiclet keyboard are tasteful and somewhat bland, but flip up the 13.3-inch display and it’s party time. You’ll find an exceptionally bright IPS dis-play that’s so sharp—totally serious here—it nearly sparkles. The trackpad performs admirably (one of the few I didn’t have to tame in the settings), and channels heat effectively away from the palm rests with reasonably mild fan noise.

On the down side, battery life was kind of pathetic at 60 minutes of heavy lifting, and if the speakers had any low end I couldn’t find it. But with headphones on and pulling a steady 33fps in BioShock Infinite at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, I was a very happy ex-Pinkerton agent.

If you want a more compact machine than the IdeaPad Y510p that’s also nearly two pounds lighter (4.65 pounds, to be exact) and are willing to pay a bit more for it, you’ll love this rig. And if it looks too conservative for your tastes, there’s always stickers.

51

Sometimes a name will come up and everybody pauses for a moment as it becomes obvious

that no one’s got anything nice to say. For me, this is that moment. That’s not to say the ATIV Book 8 is a bad laptop. It’s beautiful, quiet, and the trackpad is well-designed. And the battery life is admirable at 114 minutes at full grind. That’s cool.

You can tell I’m reaching here. The truth is, it’s just not a good gaming laptop. The keyboard is way too shallow and the keys themselves much too slick for comfortable, extended gaming. Nearly every component is behind the curve, from the acceptable 8GB of RAM to the sole 1TB 5,400rpm hard drive that rotates at a lowly 5,400rpm. The sole advantage here is the Windows 8-friendly touchscreen display, but despite the crisp colors and excellent viewing angles, it’s too dim for gamers to get excited about.

And the benchmarks are dreadful, even for the relatively low price. Inexplicably, many of them would not run, coughing up one depressing error or another. When they did run, the results weren’t anywhere near as pretty as the laptop itself. It could be a useful gaming companion, but it’s overwhelmed by so many superior options out there.

ATIV Book 8$1,270 www.samsung.com

EON13-S$1,925 www.origin.com

BENCHMARKS

NEED FOR SPEED:

GAMING LAPTOP DRIFT

In all the benchmark tests below,

higher results are better.

3DMarkFire Strike test, 1920x1080

Metro: Last LightQuality: Very High, Tesselation: Normal, 1920x1080

Total War: Shogun 2DX11 Graphics Balanced, 1920x1080

Battery lifeUnigine Heaven, Ultra setting, All power

management settings disabled

WNR:Would not run

ALIENWARE 14

3618 POINTS

20 FPS

32 FPS

71 MINUTES

DIGITAL STORM VELOCE

3669 POINTS

19 FPS

32 FPS

55 MINUTES

LENOVO IDEAPAD Y510P

4898 POINTS

16 FPS

38 FPS

71 MINUTES

ORIGIN EON13-S

WNR

18 FPS

30 FPS

60 MINUTES

RAZER BLADE

3290 POINTS

18 FPS

40 FPS

68 MINUTES

IBUYPOWER VALKYRIE CZ-27 V3

6931 POINTS

36 FPS

62 FPS

79 MINUTES

SAMSUNG ATIV BOOK 8

WNR

11 FPS

WNR

114 MINUTES

CPU

Intel Core i5-4670K

Haswell gives us lower power consumption and more performance.

FITTED July 2012

MOTHERBOARD

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H

Gigabyte’s mobo gives us full SLI support at a reasonable price.

FITTED September 2013

RAM

Corsair Vengeance

8GB of RAM is adequate for most gamers. 16GB is a nice luxury, though. FITTED September 2013

CASE

Corsair 200R

Cable routing, USB 3.0, and a roomy interior all for $60.

FITTED April 2013

HARD DRIVE

128GB Samsung 840 Pro & Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB Sata 3 7200RPM

This setup offers both speed and storage capacity.FITTED September 2013

CPU COOLER

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

An inexpensive reliable aftermarket cooler.

FITTED September 2013

VIDEO CARD

MSI Gaming N760 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 760 2GB

The new sweet spot GPU.

FITTED September 2013

POWER SUPPLY

SeaSonic SSR-450RM

Gold braided modular cables that won’t clutter up your case.

FITTED September 2013

MONITOR

Viewsonic VX2370Smh

This IPS display has great viewing angles and contrast ratio.

FITTED February 2013

KEYBOARD

Cooler Master Quickfi re Rapid

Cooler Master Quickfi re Rapid: A solid, mini gaming keyboard.

MOUSE

Death Adder 2013 Edition

This Razer mouse gives users a new 6400dpi sensor in the same fantastic form factor.FITTED September 2013

HEADSET

SteelSeries Siberia V2

Top tier mic and audio quality with a mid-range price.

FITTED August 2012

Intel’s Haswell gets frisky with Nvidia’s GTX 760

The PC Gamer Rig

W e’ve decided to overall haul our rig with Nvidia’s newest video card the GTX 760 and

an Intel Haswell i5-4570K CPU. Both new parts run cooler and use less power than our previous Ivy Bridge i5-3570K CPU and HD 7870 rig.

Our motherboard is replaced by a Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H which gives us a board that can supports SLI and giving us great GPU upgradability. The board also has heatsinks on its VRMs giving us the option of overclocking our CPU too.

This month we’ve downgraded our case from the Corsair 300R to the 200R. We liked the 300R a lot, but found that the 200R gives us many of

Logan DeckerEditor-in-Chief

$1460TOTAL PRICE

POSSIBLE UPGRADES

Seagate Barracuda 3TB > If you need a ton of storage on the cheap the Barracuda is your best option at $135 for 3 freaking TBs!Corsair H80i Liquid Cooler > A super silent liquid cooler for those wanting high performance at low decibels.PowerColor Radeon HD7950 > With 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the Radeon HD5970 is the AMD equivalent of the GTX 760.

$70

the same features while being $20 less. The rig’s storage gets an

improvement as we’ve changed our SSD from a 128GB Crucial M4 SSD to the speedier 128GB Samsung 840 Pro. We downgraded the 1TB hard drive from a Caviar Black drive to a Caviar Blue drive to mightily cut down our rig’s storage cost.

In recap we’ve upped our video and processing performance while still staying within our $1,500 budget we had for this month’s rig.

$73

$70$160$75$260

$240 $60 $205 $32

96 NOVEMBER 2013

$145

$70

WHAT’S IN THE BOX

$59.95www.gamefly.com/twRome2

Releases 3 September 2013